"Traffy." Law tries not to sigh at the nickname, he turns around from looking out to the sunset, deciding to not waste his breath and let Nami-ya call him whatever she wants. (It's Straw Hat-ya's fault anyways.) The navigator, dressed to impress in striped-pants and a bikini top, just ended her shift at the helm. Law has been feeling her stare throughout the afternoon, he vaguely wonders what she can possibly want to talk to him about. The woman leans on the railing, her gaze set out to sea. Law examines her tattoo briefly, a clinical curiosity from someone who's well-acquainted with the art. He entertains the notion that Nami-ya sees something in the water or the clouds that Law himself is blind too. (Very likely.) "You know about that bird?" She's frowning, clearly displeased.

Ah, of course.

Her mood is understandable. Law hasn't seen Straw Hat-ya in two days, ever since the Phoenix reportedly woke up and "freaked out". It was hastily decided to reconstruct the captain's cabin for their guest's use and Luffy had locked himself in there. Only showing his face when Sanji brought him in his ridiculous amounts of food or when Tony-ya came in to check on the patient. Law had been unable to help much because, as of the last time he'd seen him, they hadn't been able to turn Phoenix back into a man. The surgeon's understanding of a bird's anatomy is so limited it might as well be guesswork. Not that it was much of a loss. Law's not too proud to admit that after seeing him in action, Tony-ya's an incredibly capable doctor. (Though he wouldn't wish Phoenix's case to anyone, that's going to be a shit show).

"He's not really a bird." He reminds her, and Nami knows this much at least because she doesn't look surprised. Now, what to say? "They call him Marco The Phoenix, he's been a pirate since the times of when Gol D. Roger still sailed the seas. Whitebeard's first mate." A terrifying man with an even more terrifying reputation, a paragon of an era. "He took over the captaincy of the crew after Marineford, but most of it ended disbanding and going underground after the Payback War, which they lost." A fight that had shifted the power balance in the New World in irrevocable ways. Law isn't sure how to feel about Blackbeard, the guy seems like really bad news, but he has decided to stay off the man's way for now. No need to pick a fight with the unknown. "News of the remnants of the crew got quiet until a little less than a year ago, several of the Whitebeard Commanders were aggressively on the move." Law gives Nami-ya a meaningful stare. "Rumor had it they were searching for someone."

"Marco…" Nami-ya guesses, Law nods.

"Whom we now know had been captured by Kaido in hopes of replicating his Devil Fruit abilities, and handed over to Caesar." Law's fingers tighten around Kikoku's sheath, the idea of being hunted for one's Devil Fruit hitting a little too close to home for him.

"Is that why he's a bird -I mean, a Phoenix?"

"While Zoans generally offer their users physically-enhancing abilities, and the Bird-Bird Fruit: Model Phoenix certainly does that, the mythical zoan grants Phoenix an even greater power." Though it still falls short from the immortality-bestowing Ope-Ope Fruit. "Instant and complete regeneration." He remembers Phoenix clashing with Kizaru and later on with Akainu. "No matter the damage, he recuperates in flames."

"Chopper said that when they checked him over, he didn't have a single injury on him, not even a broken nail." Her voice tells him she's just thinking out loud, but Law answers her anyway.

"…I wouldn't say he's unharmed." How could he be?

"Luffy hasn't wanted to talk to anyone about where Marco was." She accuses, as if she's upset there's something Law knows that she doesn't.

"I spoke with Ceasar." He admits, if only to dispel the notion of Straw Hat-ya confiding in him, god forbid. Perhaps sharing this is a mistake, but he doubts it'll stay secret for long. "Phoenix has been at Punk Hazard around half a year, and he's been kept restrained with sea stone for almost as long. They would only remove it when he was too close to dying. His body would heal itself and it'd go right back in."

"Back in?" Nami asks, for the first time looking at Law and not the darkening horizon. Her gaze is innocent enough that Law feels almost bad for what he's about to tell her.

"They screwed the sea stone into him." He explains, resisting the urge to clench his jaw. Law knows pain, but having sea stone drilled into a user sounds like... well, like torture. "The scientists were terrified Phoenix-ya would get free, and figured he'd be used to traditional methods of confinement. So, they'd filled him with sea stone-made screws and cut off his thumbs." Nami lets out a soft-gasp, quickly looking away to hide her face.

"Such a thing…" Nami's eyes are downcast and a hand covers her mouth in horrified imagination. Law saves himself the rest of the details. Caesar had been unnecessarily graphic in his retelling, enough so that even Law's stomach had churned at the treatment. (There really is no bottom to the cesspool of depravity that is the world.) The last time Law saw Marco he'd been tearing through the greatest battlefield the world had ever seen, dominating his opponents, a beacon of power and rebellion. If what Caesar said is true, Law wonders what remains of that man.

"He saved Straw-Hat-ya's life." He suddenly remembers, which could shed some light as to Luffy's single-minded determination in taking care of him. "Got in between him and Akainu right after Fire-Fist died. I'm actually not sure if your captain knows. He was... indisposed at the time." More like catatonic.

"Marco must've sailed with Ace…" Well, obviously. Law stays silent though, people often repeat information out loud in order to process it and he's given plenty of things for the navigator to process indeed.

"Is he going to be okay?"

"I… don't know. But him staying inside that room, if he is even awake so far, is not a good sign."

"Can we help?" Help a stranger overcome possible PTSD and deep psychological trauma? Law thinks about the idiots that make up Straw-Hat-ya's crew. Doubtful, very doubtful. Once again, he doesn't voice his thoughts out loud.

"Chopper is studying possible complications," he shrugs noncommittally instead, "you should talk to him." As disgusting as what happened to the Phoenix is, it's none of Law's business. He's got enough demons of his own.

much love,

dee