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Curtains up!
Chapter 19 - Encounter
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, stay here."
Rosinante opened the door and stepped into the dark aisle. Only a few torches illuminated the barren stone walls and the air smelled old and stale. Reverberating steps led him past empty cells that stared at him like the dead eyes of wild animals.
For a year he had been preparing for this moment and yet nothing could prepare him for what was about to come.
At the very end of the aisle, a huge cell was awaiting him, and there he found the only prisoner present.
"Ah, what insect got lost in my kingdom?" The prisoner laughed coldly as Rosinante got closer and closer. "Someone has to be quite desperate to come to me. Usually, you people avoid me like peasants the eyes of the king. There hasn't been anyone down here for a long time. What year do we write?"
"You are not king of an empire, but a prisoner of a cell, and we write the year 1529." Rosinante stepped in front of the bars. "But yes, I am desperate and have come here to ask you for help, big brother."
The torches of the hallway cast little more than grotesque shadows into the cell, so that he could hardly identify the other, who was chained to the opposite wall with a multitude of shackles. He was scraggy, emaciated, his hair unkempt and shaggy, hung down to his shoulders, made him look almost like a stranger. His face was hidden in the shadows, but his voice showed that even for him, age had not stopped. Even his powerful brother had to bow to time and had aged. No wonder, Law had grown up, Sengoku had grown old and even his brother was now 45 years old, while time had stopped for Rosinante.
He could see that the other was tilting his head slightly, the light of the torches breaking in the splintered glasses of his sunglasses.
"What's the point of this?" The other asked with a grin. "Do you want to get information through my dead brother's face? Then you truly lack at research. I murdered my own brother back then. There's nothing I would say to this traitor, so quit the masquerade."
But the truth is, for far too long, I had this tiny hope that I would somehow be able to save him.
"Why do you think I'm here, brother?"
The other laughed quietly.
"Brother? Well, for all I care, it's often boring down here, so we'll play your game."
"It's not a game, just a simple question."
"Because you finally realized that your great justice, the Nation Association, is nonsense. Human nature is selfish and cunning, mindful of its own advantage and greedy. All those out there are lying, if they think a war and a few nice words would change humankind, and you know it. Whoever wants to survive in this world must belong to the powerful and the strong. All these naive words about friendship, charity, and kindness, they are worth nothing the next day. This new world order will fall, like any other, because people are not created for peace."
Now the teeth of a broad grin flashed in the darkness.
"You are here because you know that it is going to perish, this Nation Association, and you do not know which side to choose. The one of the good, who will die for justice and hope, or simply the one of those who want to survive. Fufufu. Your conflict of conscience is in vain, those with a weak will are always the ones who die anyway."
If I had been the first to shoot, all of this would not have happened.
"You're wrong," Rociante replied, not letting the other's words reach him. "What happens to the Nation Association is not relevant to my visit."
"So? What then, brother?"
Rosinante sighed.
"I've wanted to visit you for a long time, but I've delayed it, for Law's sake."
"Law?" For the first time, the other sounded actually curious.
"Yes, Law. The one who made sure you're locked up here."
Even in the shadows, he could see the veins of anger on the other's forehead.
"Who are you?" This question sounded more like a threat.
"You know that."
"No! I killed my brother, I shot him. He's dead!"
I'm glad you couldn't kill your brother.
"I remember," he continued, calmly, and did not let his memories overwhelm him, "at that time on Minion. You had your gun pointed at me and I pointed mine at you. I had decided to shoot you, but I couldn't, even though I knew you wouldn't hesitate to shoot me."
He wondered what the other was thinking.
"But the worst thing about the whole situation was that I lied to Law. I told him that you wouldn't hurt me because we are brothers, and he believed me. He was sitting behind me in that box and had to listen to you shooting me and that's my fault because I couldn't kill you."
"What the...?"
"You don't have to believe me. I had not planned that our first meeting would go like this, but today I lack the time to convince you of the truth. All I want to know is whether you know someone who has a devil power to resurrect the dead."
The other remained silent for a moment, tilting his head from one side to the other and back.
"What kind of strategy is this supposed to be? Pretending to be my dead brother to get information that doesn't exist."
"What?"
"I don't know what you're aiming for with your laughable appearance, brother, but although there are some devil powers that can affect life, there are none that could bring the dead back to life, except for the revive-revive fruit, but this only applies to the user. You're wasting my time, your game bores me, so leave."
"No, you know something," Rosinante replied coolly, his arms crossed. "I assume that after Sengoku no one visited you anymore. That means you haven't spoken to anyone for three years. They have deprived you of your newspaper privilege, so you didn't even have the news of the world to kill some time. You have had no idea how many hours, days, weeks, months you have spent here all alone and lonely. You were happy when you heard that someone was coming. You rejoiced at this distraction, even if it were so boring, you would still prefer it to the timeless eternity of your cell. "
"Stop it!" the other growled.
"That means either you know something or you doubt."
"Stop it!"
"If you knew something, it would put you in a position of power, but your reaction tells me..."
"STOP!" The chains were clattering loudly when the other man turned and twisted in his prison. "Go! Leave me alone!"
"Tell me what I want to know and I'll go."
"The devil fruit you are looking for does not exist!" The other breathed heavily, his chained hands clenched to fists.
"Then let me rephrase my question: Is there anyone who could revive a dead person in exchange for eternal life?"
"Law!" It was the grumbling of a beast. "His ability belongs to me!"
"No, brother, he promised it to someone else and I want to know to whom."
The other was still breathing heavily, appearing to tremble with anger, chains clattering. Even now, in this unfortunate state, he still had something royal, something impressive, and that even though he behaved as uncontrollably as a defiant child.
"And when I tell you who, you will disappear?"
"That's the deal."
"And you'll never come back?"
Your kindness may have been a weakness towards your brother, but because of that you saved me.
"I wouldn't have any reason to."
The other snarled at him.
"All right."
"I hear."
"The boss."
"Who?"
The other tilted his head to the side.
"Nobody knows her real name. She is called the boss and she has the ability to do almost anything as long as you can pay the price. She is some coldblooded businesswoman without morals or conscience."
"Where can I find her?"
"Nah, she usually finds you. But it is rumored that she lives near the Red Line, near Mary Joa, logically. There's no better way to make billions than with contractors who want everything but don't care about money."
In front of his inner eye, he could see the missing pieces of the puzzle falling into place. At last he knew what the big picture was.
For a moment, he stared at his older brother, who had shot him because Rosinante had betrayed him.
"Have you ever...?"
"That's enough now." The other sounded threatening again. "You wanted to know who she was and I even told you where to find her. I've kept my part of the deal, and now leave."
Rosinante nodded.
"All right and thank you very much. I will go now."
We are human beings, we make mistakes and act according to our feelings and our conscience.
"But I'm sorry, I've lied to you - again - once I've taken care of this thing, I'll come back and we'll talk and I won't leave after one answer. So until then, big brother."
Loud curses, roars, and screams followed him as he walked down the cold aisle, not turning once for his brother.
"And?" Sengoku asked him when he reached the elevator.
"I need a transponder snail."
"We have one on board."
He folded his arms as they headed back to the surface. Sengoku was circumspect enough not to ask.
An hour later, he dialed a familiar number.
"Practice Natsu, how can I help you...?"
"Mrs. Paipai."
"Corazon, is that you? Ninnin said Doctor Trafalgar had called her and told her she had to take over his appointments, and you disappear the same day without even locking the front door. What happened?"
"Law is in trouble, but I'm taking care of it. But I need your help for that."
"Of course."
"Do you know a woman from the area who is an excellent businesswoman, maybe even from a big company, maybe they always talk about her as the boss?"
"Oh, you're definitely talking about Momo's employer."
Bingo!
"You know who she is?"
"Yes, of course. She lives on Aki. Her surname is Doto or something. She is heiress to a wealthy family business, very reserved. Momo, my nephew, works for her. She seems to be a very generous employer."
"Thank you."
"Corazon, tell me, do I have to worry?"
He hesitated, but then he smiled.
"No, Mrs. Paipai, as you know, I am taking care of Law."
But when he hung up, his grin disappeared.
"Rosinante…"
"No," he interrupted Sengoku, who just came through the door. "I don't want to talk about my brother or anything else."
"Rosinante, Law will be..."
"He could already be dead, Sengoku. He might have died half an hour after leaving and if I had not taken the ferry to Haru, but to Aki, I could have stopped him."
"You didn't know."
"But I should have known. Damn it, lies and secrets are my specialty, I should have recognized what Law is up to. I should have..."
"Rosinante!"
Almost automatically he got tense as only his superior could make him.
"I'm not going to repeat what I said this morning. You can't change the past and you don't know what to expect in the future. So focus on the present, you'll need it."
He looked at the other.
"What do you mean by that?"
"The straw hats have just reached Kaikkien Maiden and are waiting for us."
The group of strange figures who were waiting for him looked at him suspiciously. They seemed to be a motley crew and he did not know if the skeleton or the cyborg fascinated him more.
Then his gaze fell on the apparent leader of the group – even if Rosinante could not see anything that would indicate the straw hat giving the name – who stood half a step ahead of the others, apparently ready for an attack at any time.
"So you're Law's friend," the green-haired man grumbled, and Rosinante recognized his voice. He was the one he had talked to through the transponder snail.
"Yes. My name is Donquixote Rosinante, I believe you have already met my brother."
Disbelief greeted him, conspicuously by some, and barely visible by others.
"Doflamingo had a brother?" Asked a... Raccoon?
"Corazon," replied a blond with a cigarette in his mouth, "that's what Law called him if I'm not mistaken."
Now Rosinante noticed that the blond looked at him suspiciously as well, not as obvious as the one he suspected to be the captain, but also not as inconspicuous as the woman with the black hair.
"Corazon is dead," the leader replied with a bad smile, "so you are..."
"I assure you that this is Donquixote Rosinante, also called Corazon," Sengoku interrupted the other and bowed swiftly.
"Wait, wait, wait!" Suddenly another man with black curls interfered. "Tra-guy brought a dead man back to life?"
Rosinante nodded.
"As I said, he's in trouble."
Suddenly, a dirty grin slid over the leader's face.
"Well, at least it's going to be interesting."
A woman with short orange hair thrust her elbow into the leader's side.
"Law is in danger and you're just thinking about fighting again."
"Where's your captain," Sengoku interrupted the other two, and Rosinante looked up in surprise. In terms of charisma and aura, he could have bet that the green-haired man with the swords to be clearly the captain of the crew.
"Visiting Corby," the non-captain replied with a shrug.
"Are you not also a friend of his, Roronoa?"
Oh, he had read the name in the newspaper before. So this was the best swordsman in the world.
"Nah, I was more curious about Law's friend," Roronoa Zoro grinned, and then looked directly at Rosinante, "could have been a trap."
"Geez, Marimo, since Mystoria you are so suspicious, it's annoying. Not every stranger is automatically an enemy."
"Shut up, dart brow, I was just looking forward to a fight, nothing more. Besides, you are the idiot who keeps going on about Mystoria..."
"So Corazon," the woman with the orange hair interrupted the two other, "I may call you Corazon, right? What is the plan?"
Unwell, he turned to her.
"Should we not wait for your captain."
"No," replied all the other attendees - including Sengoku - unanimously, rolling their eyes.