A/N:
I've decided to come back to writing fanfics! Previously I had written 2 OP fics, both were also LawxOC. But that was many years ago, when I was 15? I re-read my work a few months back and golly, it was trash. I had to delete it. I'm 21 now, and I still love Law a lot, he deserves all the love in the world. All the hugs. All the wholesomeness.
I've got a few inspirations for this fic. One of it is FRUITPUNCHED by razbliuto, you can read their work here on this site, it's also a high school AU. Also, please read Methyl Nitrate Pineapples, written by the same author. This author has a lot of chaotic energy, I love it.
My other inspiration is Durarara!, there's an anime series of it and I highly recommend watching it. To summarise, the show is about high school gangsters, urban myths, flying vending machines, and Russian assassins. So much chaotic energy.
All the chaos. All the havoc. I love it, and I hope you love it too. Enjoy.
Emma had her arm crossed, finger tapping furiously on her arm as she stood on the platform. She glared at the clock hanging from the ceiling at some distance away. 'Any. Second. Now.'
First day of the week, and she's on her way to being late for school. Monday blues? Screw that. She's seeing red.
- 1 hour ago -
Emma eyed the television with half lidded eyes, still trying to blink the last bit of sleepiness away. She barely paid attention to the morning news, and absentmindedly scooped some yogurt from her bowl and shoved it into her mouth.
In the past month there's been a lot of news going around about some series of bicycle thefts going on in the city. The police have been going around putting up posters everywhere about how people should take care of their bicycles. Pfffffffft. That never stopped those petty thieves from stealing bicycles. Never have, never will. Crime is everywhere in this city. The authorities have no time to deal with stuff like this, they have their hands full with gang fights, drug trafficking, murder… the list goes on. Bigger fish to fry. Can't waste too much resources on some bicycle theft.
Just go and get a new bicycle, you dimwits— Is probably what the police thought every time they received a new report on another theft.
But, to be fair, it's not all that bad around here. There are quiet neighbourhoods around here, and the people who live in those neighbourhoods kind of have this silent agreement with one another where the terms are 'I mind my own business, you mind your own business, and we all stay out of trouble for our own sanity.'
Emma lived in one of those neighbourhoods, thankfully.
She finished up the last of her yogurt, and placed the bowl in the sink. 'I'll wash it later… yup.'
Everything goes as routine. Have breakfast and watch the morning news until the time on the tv screen says 7:30AM. Turn off the television. Clear away breakfast stuff. Grab school bag. Put on shoes. Open the door. Lock the door. Go down six flights of stairs. Go to the the bicycle parking lot. Go to the third lot in the second row. Unlock bic—
Emma stopped dead in her tracks.
Her bicycle isn't there.
What's left there, though, was a black chain that was supposed to secure her bicycle on the metal pipes. That chain had been cut.
Emma could only stare. And blink. And stare at the empty lot some more. And after after a good minute or three she let out a murderous sounding "What the hell."
She turned on her heel and ran.
—
The homeroom teacher of class 2-A called out name after name in the most booooring, monotonous tone. After calling out each name he will either mark a tick next to the name he called out, or leave it blank.
"Sylvers Emma?"
Aaand, silence.
The homeroom teacher looked up from the class roster and scanned the classroom, before calling out once more, "Sylvers Emma?" Only to be met with silence again, and many pairs of eyes staring blankly at the teacher, some others staring at the empty seat beside the window which belongs to Emma. With an air of indifference, he moved on to the next name. "Trafalgar Law?"
Behind Emma's empty seat, the tattooed boy glanced up from the book he was reading. "Here."
The teacher went on until he was done with the list. "No announcements for today. Do me a favour and stay out of trouble." The homeroom teacher drawled out, and ended with 'brats'. New week. Same routine. Same brats. Same trouble. The teacher sighed, they seem to get worse with each cohort. He picked up his file and walked out of the classroom, and kicked the sliding door shut behind him.
The class broke out into chatter.
An orange-haired girl turned around to face the girl seated behind her. "Hey Koala, have you heard from Emma?" She pointed at the empty seat next to Koala.
Koala was scrolling through her phone and made a little humming noise. "She didn't say anything about not feeling well, maybe she overslept?" She continued scrolling through her phone, still making no eye contact with Nami. "But that rarely happens, I have to admit. She's always early, if not on time."
"Right?" Nami took out her phone to check if Emma had sent her a text, but she had no new messages. "Could she have texted Sabo?"
Koala immediately looked up from her phone and stared at Nami as if there's a mushroom growing at the top of her head. "Nami. No one in their right mind will text Sabo. Even if there's an emergency." Because they might as well contact someone else instead. Someone who will check their phone frequently enough. Someone who will bother to reply. Someone who will bother to pick up phone calls.
"Uh… right." Nami said lamely. "I forgot. Sorry."
A blonde guy in class 2-B sneezed.
Just then the door slid open and hit against the wall with a loud bang. Emma walked in to the classroom, and with a puff slid the door shut with another loud bang.
Everyone stared at the latecomer as she stood there silently for a moment, slightly panting. 'Poor door…'
Emma dragged her feet through the classroom to her seat, placed her bag on the little hook on the side of her desk, gracefully seated (read: plopped) herself on the chair, slumped forward and her forehead came into contact with the desk surface with a loud thud. She let out a groan, which could have been mistaken for a dying frog.
"Good morning to you too, sunshine," Nami chirped. "Rough night?"
Emma scoffed at the suggestive tone. "As if," she paused for a moment, and sighed. "Someone stole my bicycle. Had to run to the station to catch the train instead." And after that, she had to run from the station to the school. So, her usual 45 minutes commute to school ended up taking a little over an hour.
She could hear Koala going oof. "Became a victim of bicycle theft, huh? You poor thing."
Emma pouted a little, and started drawing little circles on her desk with her fingers. She sighed again. "Maybe I'll stop by the second hand shop after school and get a new one." She felt her mood dampened further at the thought of getting a new bicycle. She really liked the one she had. It was a gift from the old lady who used to work in the general store down the street, just a 5-minute walk from her apartment. She quite liked the elderly woman. Whenever she went down to the store to get some to buy some household items, the old lady would often sneak in some snacks from her store. On days that she was lucky, the old lady would give her some traditional treats she made— daifuku mochi was Emma's favourite. The old lady always experimented with different flavours. And they were all delicious.
Unfortunately, the old lady retired, and left the business with her daughter. Sometimes her 7 year-old son will be in the shop, doing his homework or drawing. On even luckier days, the old lady will stop by the shop and bring along some of those delectable treats…
Emma made a mental note to drop by the general store on her way back to test her luck.
The door slid open with a bang—again—as their history teacher slid through the doorway with slight difficulty, hands occupied with carrying his bag and graded quiz papers from last week. And so the ruthless onslaught of classes began.
By the time lunch break came everyone was dead beat.
Students took out their lunchboxes and crowded in groups. Some students went out to other classrooms to look for their friends, like Koala going to 2-B to look for Sabo and friends, and Nami going to 2-C to look for Luffy and friends. A rowdy bunch, the whole lot of them.
And then, some students from other classrooms came over to 2-A, like Shachi, Penguin, and Bepo. They stole some empty chairs nearby, and made themselves comfortable around Law's desk. The three new-comers talked loudly as they ate their lunch (rather, more of Shachi and Penguin arguing over some game, while Bepo threw in some comments here and there). Law paid no attention to his friends, instead he was reading his book while taking occasional bites of the onigiri that Bepo made for him.
The girl seated in front of them—Emma— did not seemed bothered by the shouting and occasional screeching laughter that came from Penguin and Shachi. In fact, she was too engrossed with reading as well (Underground is an interesting read), it was so easy to block out the noise around her. The katsu sandwich that was her lunch was only half eaten, and the bottled royal milk tea was still unopened.
Bepo eyed the bottle.
Bepo hesitated for a few minutes.
Bepo gave in.
Bepo tapped on Emma's shoulder.
"Hmm?" Emma turned her head to where the tapping came from, and saw Bepo's beady eyes staring back at her. She gave him a small smile. Bepo is a year younger than them, and he's also part of the school's karate club. She did spar with him a few times during training, and he's crazy strong, arguably one of the best in the school team. Koala's been insisting she wants Bepo to take over her position as captain in the next academic year. The only issue was, he can be too naive at times. Too gentle. Too polite. Some found it worrying. Emma thought it was an endearing trait of Bepo's. And for the life of her, she just couldn't fathom why such a polite boy would hang out with troublemakers that came in the form of Shachi, Penguin, and Law.
"Do you need something, Bepo?"
Bepo pointed at the bottled royal milk tea. "Are you going to drink that? If not, may I have it?"
Emma smiled a little wider. If Bepo's asking, she would never refuse. She took the bottled and handed it to Bepo. "All yours, enjoy."
Bepo took the bottle and cradled it to his chest, and said 'Thank you Emma' with a really huge smile that made him look so pure and child-like, it made Emma's heart squeeze a little at how precious this boy is.
Emma picked up her book again to read from where she left off, Bepo twisted the cap until it opened with a small plasticy-snap, and drank the tea. He peered over Emma's shoulder to peek at her book. "What are you reading?"
At Bepo's question to Emma, Law glanced up from his own book and stared at the fellow bookworm in front (both of them were known as The Bookworms of 2-A).
"Underground. Written by Haruki Murakami. Have you heard of it?" Emma replied without looking up from her book.
Bepo shook his head, but realised she couldn't see him. "No…"
She passed the book to Bepo, with the back cover facing up so that he could read the summary of the book. "It's about the gas attack in the Tokyo Subway many years ago. We weren't around yet back then," Emma explained. "It had a lot of media coverage for some time, and the perpetrator was executed a two years ago. The author of this book went around interviewing people who were involved in the gas attack."
"That's a rather morbid subject to be interested in, Sylvers-ya," Law called from behind, hint of amusement in his voice.
Turning her body so that she could look at the lanky, tattooed boy, she retorted: "I don't want to hear that from someone who finds joy from dissecting live frogs. Nasty."
Law's grin only grew wider. At this point, Shachi and Penguin finally decided to call truce over whatever they had been arguing over, and turned their focus on Emma. "Emma-chaaaaan, why did you give only Bepo milk tea? What about us?" Penguin cried out.
"What about us?" Shachi followed suit. Both of them were pouting pitifully at her.
"…Get it yourself."
"Nooooooo!" The both of them wailed.
Bepo continued to sip on the milk tea happily.
Law took Emma's book from Bepo, earning a 'H-hey!' from the girl. In return, he tossed the book he was reading to Emma. She caught it with both hands and glared at him. "I'm not done with that book."
"And I'm done with mine," Law said to the irritated girl. He opened the book Underground and began reading it. "I'll return this next week. Feel free to hold on to my book as long as you want, I don't need it anymore," Law waved his hand in a dismissive manner as if saying 'Take that unsightly thing away from me'.
Shachi laughed and slapped Emma on her back. "Whaddya know? The Bookworms of 2-A are doing book exchanges now! What's next, study dates?"
Emma slapped Shachi's face with Law's book, which left Shachi in tears as he cradled his nose, and Penguin and Bepo doubled over in laughter.
She looked at the book she now had, Sophie's World, a book about philosophy.
Trafalgar Law, and philosophy? Huh, who knew.
She had seen this book a few times in the bookstore. Admittedly, she had been wanting to purchase a copy for herself, but usually got distracted by other titles and ended up buying other books instead. But, if she's getting it for free…
'Ah whatever, might as well,' She flipped open the book, and was five pages in before the bell rang, signalling the end of lunch break.
—
Classes ended for the day, everyone was done with cleaning duty, and the hallways were filled with students who were either going home or had to stay back in school for club activities. On Mondays, Emma got to go home after class.
"Are you sure you don't want me to follow you to the second hand shop? I could probably get you a further discount," Nami offered. She opened her shoe locker, took out her outdoor shoes and placed her indoor shoes in the locker.
Emma shook her head as she took out her shoes as well. "No thanks, I'm not looking to be a cheapskate."
"Ouch," Nami feigned hurt, but the grin on her face betrayed her.
They headed over together to the school's bicycle parking lot. Emma waited for Nami as she went to retrieve her bicycle. She looked at the flock of students who were making their way to the school gate, a lot of them with their own bicycles in tow.
Heck, she even saw Trafalgar Law talking to Monkey D. Luffy and Roronoa Zoro from 2-C, all of them had bicycles with them and were waiting for some of their other friends to unlock their bicycles.
Emma did a double take. Law's bicycle looked oddly familiar.
Luckily, Nami decided to approach the group, and Emma could get a closer look on the bicycle in Law's hands. "You guys hanging out?" Nami asked.
Luffy smiled wider. "Yeah! We're gonna get some snacks, Torao's treating us!"
"Oi, I never agreed to anything," Law protested, glaring at the shorter boy.
Luffy just laughed and slapped on Law's shoulder repeatedly. "But you got a new bicycle and a new book! That means you've got money, right?"
'A new bicycle?'
Emma walked up to the Law, and examined the bicycle. She looked for a tag in the front basket—there it is— she flipped the tag and written on it, in a script she could recognise even if she got amnesia, was Sylvers Emma. She stared at it for a few seconds. 'So…That means…'
"AAAAAAAAAHHH!" Emma exclaimed, pointing an accusing figure at Law. "Where the hell did you get my bicycle from?!"
The tip of Law's lips curled up into a very annoying, cocky smirk. "I found it in the park last night, so I took it."
"LIES."
"Do you have proof?" Law countered. That smirk was still on his face. Emma wanted to punch that face. She stayed silent. "I thought so."
"Why you little—!"
"Playground rules, Sylvers-ya," Law said mockingly, "Finders, keepers."
Emma growled and raised her fist, and took a menacing step towards Law. But before she could punch him, Nami and Zoro held her back, and Luffy was just laughing at the whole spectacle. "What the hell are you, a kindergarten kid?!"
Law reached a tattooed hand out and patted on her head a few times. "There, there. No need to get so worked up," He hopped on to her bicycle, and waved at them. "See ya," and he sped out of the school gate before anyone could protest to his departure.
Everyone just stared at the school gate where Trafalgar Law disappeared, and after a few moments Nami and Zoro released their grip on Emma. She was still glaring at the school gate, as if he was still there, fists still shaking in anger. "T-that little…"
"Bugger?" Nami pipped.
"Fucker?" Zoro added.
"Tattoo man?" Luffy guessed.
"That's not an insult, Luffy," Usopp chided. He had joined the group in the midst of it all, and knew enough of the situation.
"NINCOMPOOP!" Emma shrieked.
—
There was an air of depression surrounding Emma. The strangers around her in the train cabin could pick up on her emotional state a mile away, but paid her no heed.
She reached her station, got off the train, and trudged along the side pavement. She went past the second hand shop without going in. She doesn't want a new bike anymore, she wants her old one back. Ever since she parted ways with Nami and the rest, she had been trying to formulate plans to retrieving her bicycle back from Trafalgar Law, but her brain seemed to be stuck on an eternal loop of chanting . .
After a while and many nincompoops later, Emma arrived at the general store. She peeked through the window, and let out a long sigh. The old lady wasn't in today.
Oh well, might as well get some yogurt and other stuff to stock up.
Emma pushed open the door and the bell attached to the door rang. She saw the green-haired woman—the old lady's daughter—sitting by the counter. The woman looked up at Emma. "Hello Emma! Just ended school?"
Emma gave a small smile and nodded weakly. "Hello, Makino-san. School's exhausting," she lied. Well, not really. School is exhausting, but she didn't feel like sharing with everyone that the reason for her depressed state was a nincompoop named Trafalgar Law.
"Gee, no wonder you look so tired," said Makino. "Though, I think I have something that will cheer you up!"
Emma's eyes widened a bit. "Mochi?" She asked hopefully.
Makino giggled. "Not exactly, but my mother came by just now. She wanted to give this to you," Makino took out a notebook and handed it to Emma.
Emma looked at it curiously, and opened the front cover of the notebook. Her eyes scanned through the paper briefly as she flipped page after page. "It's… a recipe book?"
"Mmhmm," Makino confirmed. "My mother knows how much you love mochi, she thought it would be good if you could learn how to make it yourself."
Emma felt herself tear up a little bit.
Quickly blinking her tears aways, she gave Makino a genuine smile. "Thanks, Makino-san. Please give Grandma my thanks, I'll try making some soon."
"No problem!"
Emma picked up yogurt, strawberries, some vegetables, and she found herself buying ingredients for making mochi.
—
Dishes, check.
Laundry, check.
Homework, check.
Pack school bag, check.
Pack karate uniform, check.
Prepare tomorrow's lunch, check.
By the time she was done with everything, it was close to 11pm. She was mindlessly scrolling through Instagram posts, but after a while got bored and decided to look at the Stories instead. First one on her feeder was Luffy, he took a lot of pictures of himself, Zoro, Usopp, Sanji, underclassman Chopper and upperclassman Brook and Franky eating at a popular cafe joint in downtown. Some of the pictures were decent looking, with everyone smiling at the camera, others just spelled absolute havoc. Nonetheless, it seemed they had a good time. There was even a photo where Luffy mentioned Law, and wrote in the caption that he bailed out on them. The rest of the gang uploaded similar photos, all of them mentioning each other on their posts.
There was Ace and Sabo, both of them went to the gym after school and took a mirror selfie of themselves shirtless, and hashtagged #NoPainNoGain. Cringey.
Robin, an upperclassman, posted something about the Russian Revolution, sharing some facts and her opinions on the subject. Emma dutifully read every single history post Robin uploaded. Without it, she would surely be on her way to failing history by now.
And then, surprisingly, the next person on her line-up is The Abomination himself, Law. He took a photo of the front cover of Underground, and captioned: 'Good read'.
For some reason, Emma felt pleased by it. Of course it's a good read, she picked up that book herself. It was almost as if he was complimenting her taste in literature, but then she remembered that she stole her beloved bicycle. And any positive feelings she had vanished in an instant.
A LINE notification popped up from the top of the screen. It was a text from The Abomination.
Trafalgar Law (2-A)
Hey - 11:14 PM
Emma dared not click on the notification. She waited for his next message.
Meet at Hikawadai Station tomorrow. 8am. Don't be late - 11:15 PM
What. The. Heck.
Emma contemplated changing his contact name.
She waited a few minutes before finally opening the chat, and typed out a reply.
Why should I?
Emma put down her phone and reached for Sophie's World, flipped open to page 6, and started reading. Her phone vibrated after she was done with the page. Another message from The Abomination.
Trafalgar Law (2-A)
You'll get to see your bicycle :) - 11:19 PM
See ya - 11:19 PM
Emma typed out a short reply.
Drop dead
She proceeded to change 'Trafalgar Law (2-A)' to 'The Abomination'. She turned off her data network and carelessly threw her phone on the desk beside her bed. She read Sophie's World until it was slightly past midnight, and finally went to bed.
—
She turned up anyways.
She reached Hikawadai Station at 7.55am, and texted Law asking where the heck was he.
'One station away', he said. 'Wait at the vending machines outside the station', he said.
True to his word, Law appeared a few minutes later, among the crowd who alighted the train with him. A lot of them were students wearing the same uniform as Law and Emma. Spotting him was easy, he stood at least a head taller than everyone. He pushed her bicycle along, it was covered in a bicycle bag that had to be used if you're bringing your bicycle on the train.
Law nodded at her in greeting. Emma glared a bit, but nodded back anyways with a tiny "Morning." As much as she wanted to pick a fight with him, it was just too early for this. She could wait until lunch break.
Law took off the bicycle cover, folded it neatly and placed it in the front basket together with his school bag. He got on the bicycle, and looked at Emma.
Emma stared back. "What."
"If you're gonna take forever to get on, we'll be late for school," Law motioned at the seat behind him.
Oh.
…What?
"We're riding a bicycle to school together?"
"Would you rather I leave you here to be late for school two days in a row?" Law deadpanned.
…No. She couldn't care to be late for school the second time. They are only 4 weeks in the academic year. It wouldn't look good on her track record.
She reluctantly sat herself on the seat behind Law, both legs dangling off the same side. One hand hugged her school bag while the other gripped on the metal seat to stabilise herself. Law kicked off the pavement and started pedalling. During the 20-minute ride to school, both of them largely remain silent, until they got to a tiny uphill. Law told her to get off, saying he won't pedal both of their weights up the hill. They got off the bicycle and walked the rest of the way to school in silence.
When they reached the school compound, they still had 15 minutes before homeroom started. Law went to the bicycle lot. Emma did not wait for him, and went up to the classroom first.
Nami and Koala aren't there yet, so Emma settled for reading her (Law's) book. She did not even notice Law entering the classroom, until she felt someone walk past her, and there was the noise of the chair being dragged from behind her. He said nothing to her.
Few minutes later Koala and Nami walked in the classroom together, and greeted Emma 'Good morning!', she muttered the greeting back, too focused on the book. Even when the homeroom teacher walked in and performed his daily routine of taking the class attendance and making announcements, Emma's eyes never left the book. When the first period started, she reluctantly slid the bookmark between the pages and snapped the book shut, and placed it under her desk.
Classes were mind-numbingly boring. As usual. When lunch came, Emma decided she wanted a change of scenery, and went up to the rooftop with her packed lunch and book.
Today's lunch was onigiri coated with furikake, and tofu salad.
There's an empty spot by the wall (thank god). Emma made herself comfortable on the concrete floor, skirt fanned out over her legs and on the floor as she propped one ankle over the other, and rested her back against the wall. Onigiri in one hand, book in the other. She held the onigiri closer to her mouth and wanted to take a bite—
A figure plopped beside her. From the corner of her eye, Emma saw a tattooed hand reaching for her lunchbox—hold on, what?
Next thing Emma knew, she was staring the The Abomination as he took a bite of the other onigiri that she had prepared. He mirrored Emma, onigiri in one hand, book in the other. He was reading Underground, completely ignoring Emma's stares.
That nincompoop. Stupid ding-dong.
"Oi. That's my lunch."
"Hn," Law grunted in reply, and took another bite of the onigiri. Emma continued to stare at him, waiting for him to say something else. He kept silent.
Eventually Emma gave up and ate her lunch.
They spent the rest of lunch break reading in silence. With the occasional spring breeze tickling their skin, and the distant chatter of other students on the rooftop serving as white noise, it could have been a wonderful break. But then there's Trafalgar Law. His presence irked her.
Last year, he started some 'Biology Club', but that name was just a cover up for the club's real activities. It was a gambling den, and Law was swindling money off some dumbasses who couldn't tell a scam when they saw one. Apparently Nami caught wind of it and joined the club as well, and ended up giving everyone a run for their money. Literally. By then Law had gotten bored of it all and basically upped and left, leaving everything to Nami. Till this day, some dumbass was still losing his money in the "Biology Club".
Another time, there were rumours going around that Luffy and his merry gang mocked some senior named Condoriano—what kind of a stupid name is that? Condoriano was so pissed off he brought his G8 gang down to where the first-year classrooms were, and a fight broke out. Emma wanted to stay out of that fight back then, but some hooligan got the bright idea to snatch her book out of her hand and toss it somewhere, and Emma watched it got stepped on by another hooligan. Emma went on a rampage with nothing but a pen (anything can be made into a weapon if you put your mind to it).
It was only a while later that it came to light that no one insulted this Condoriano in the first place (and that his real name was Shepherd, how dumb). And the one who started the rumour?
Well… you know who.
Trafalgar Law was always instigating something, but rarely got involved in the mess he made, unless he wanted to. Emma had to admit, that's some skill.
And then, there were the times where Trafalgar Law, Eustass Kid, and Monkey D. Luffy were hanging out together, the entire cohort (sometimes, school) would prepare for the inevitable chaos. With Law's brains, and Luffy's and Kid's brute strength, it can only mean an all-out brawl. Ah, those were the first-year days.
They barely started their second-year, who knows what kind of nonsense they will come up with this year?
The bell rang, rudely dragging Emma out of her musings. She didn't even realised she lost focus on the text of her book. She heard the sound of the boy beside her snapping the book shut.
"Thanks for lunch, it was good," Law called out as he headed for the stairs, face turned enough so that Emma could see the shit-eating grin.
—
Afternoon classes passed in a blur, and now Emma was in the girls' changing room with Koala, stripping the blouse, tie, and skirt, and putting on the white karate-gi.
"So, where were you during lunch?" Koala asked. Her tone was casual enough, but the raised eyebrow and upward-tug at the corner of her lips suggested something else.
"Rooftop, why?" Emma replied, just as casual as Koala.
Koala hummed in a way that seemed to conveyed 'oh, really?'. "Couldn't help but noticed that Law-kun wasn't in the classroom for lunch too," Koala chirped, her voice dripped with hidden accusations.
Emma simply hmph-ed and rolled her eyes at Koala.
They made their way to the sports hall, which was shared between the karate club and kendo club on Tuesdays. From the corner of her eye, Emma saw Zoro and Tashigi sparring each other for warm-ups. On the karate-side of the hall, some of the students were already setting up the training mats. Hack-sensei, the instructor of the club, was seated in a seiza with both eyes closed in meditation.
More students in white and coloured belts trickled in one by one—there was Bepo too— and soon the 2-hour training commenced.
—
"Ngggggooooohhhhhhffffff…" Koala groaned, legs dragging on the floor as she made her way to the school gate. Her body is gonna ache for days.
Alongside her was Emma, in a similar state of misery. "I know right," she grunted. Hack-sensei was ruthless today. Brutal. Merciless.
Bepo and a few others were there too, all exhausted from the ass-whooping they got for training today. Within the group of them, there was enough misery to last them till the next semester.
"Can I call in sick tomorrow?" One student asked. He sounded like he was on the verge of tears.
Bepo patted the kid on the back gently. "There there… I'll keep the handouts for you tomorrow," he offered politely.
The other student cried tears of gratefulness, and kept thanking Bepo non-stop.
As they approached the bicycle lot, Emma looked over to see if her bicycle was there. It wasn't. She felt a tinge of disappointment, she could really use a ride to the train station—
'No,' she was just fine. She can make it to the station on foot. No problem.
Emma and Bepo parted ways with Koala and the rest. The both of them would usually chat on the way until they reached the station, where Bepo would continue his walk home alone and Emma on the train. But for today, both of them had a silent agreement that they were too shagged to bother with any conversation. It was only when they reached the station, did they opened their mouth to say 'bye bye' to each other with tired smiles.
The train ride was uneventful. It was crowded from all the students and adults who were headed home after a long day. She couldn't even take her book out from her bag without elbowing someone. The train ride felt longer than usual.
She felt her stomach constricting uncomfortably. It was crying for food. 'Me too,' Emma thought, 'I want food too, so pipe it down until we're home.' She made a mental note to drop by the convenience store to pick up some food. No cooking today.
Emma alighted at her station, up the escalator, and headed for the convenience store just opposite the station and—
That bicycle.
Her bicycle. It was chained to a lamp post just outside the convenience store.
She looked through the glass panels of the store, looking out for a head with messy black hair and two golden earrings on each ear— there he is.
Emma sighed, steeled her resolve, and pushed open the door. She walked up to the bento section, where Law was at. He was no longer wearing his uniform, instead wearing a T-shirt, sweatpants, and sandals. He spotted her immediately, and smirked.
"Getting dinner?" He asked.
She nodded, and turned her attention to the refrigerated shelves. After looking through her options (none of them looked appetising, they were left behind on the shelves for a reason), Emma randomly took a bento box. She was hungry, anything edible will do at this point. She made her way to the counter, took her wallet out to pay—tattooed hands placed another bento box on top of hers.
"Um… would you like to pay for it together or separately?" The cashier asked.
Both of them replied at the same time. Emma said 'separately', Law said 'together'.
Emma glared at him. "I'm not paying for you."
"Actually, I was about to offer to pay for the both of us," Law's smirked grew even wider. "But if you don't want that, then it's fine too."
Emma scoffed. "Yeah right, as if you would pay for me. But no thanks anyway."
After she paid for her food, she headed for the door but got yanked back by Law grabbing her bag. She let out a small yelp as she stumbled backwards, hands flailing in front of her in a piss-poor attempt at regaining her balance. A firm hand pressed on the back of her shoulders, helping Emma to stand properly.
She turned to glare at Law. "What the hell do you want now?!"
He grabbed the plastic bag in her hands, and handed it to the cashier. "Heat this up, and that too," he gestured towards his own bento.
The cashier nodded dumbly and scurried away with their bento boxes.
Law looked at the girl, returning her glare with that cocky smirk that never left his face. "There's a park just down the street."
"I know, I live in this area," Emma said.
"I know," Law parroted her. "Let's eat there."
"HUH?" Her exclamation caused a few heads to turned in her direction, but she ignored them. "What am I, your dinnertime entertainment?"
"Exactly."
Emma sighed. She's too tired to argue with him, and decided to just follow for now, finish her dinner ASAP, and go home.
Law carried their dinner, dragging her bicycle along as they made their way to the park. They found an empty bench and settled there. He handed the bento to Emma. She placed it on her lap, muttered 'itadakimasu' before opening the lid.
There was silence for a while as both of them ate, not a word spoken. Emma opted to watch the children playing in the playground.
"If you're not careful, you'll choke to death," Law said bluntly, but to Emma's trained ears she could hear a lot of amusement in his voice.
She gave him a pointed look. "I'd rather eat in the comfort of my home, but someone decided to drag me here instead."
Law hummed, "I wonder who."
"Can I punch you?"
"No you may not," Law chuckled. "I thought I'd show you where I found your bicycle."
…Huh?
"You're kidding."
Law shook his head. "Unfortunately, no. It'd be so much easier to hate on me if I was, right?" He looked at her, watching as her face contorted into something that look like disbelief, and, is that horror?
"You're lying," Emma insisted.
"I knew you'd say that," he sighed. "Which is why…"
Emma tilted her head, cheeks puffed out as it was stuffed with food. She chewed slowly. Which is why what?
"I thought I'd arranged a meeting with the lot who stole your bicycle," he finished with a satisfied smirk. "In fact, they should be here any minute now."
Thank god she swallowed her food already, if not she was sure she would spit at Law's face—actually, on second thought, that didn't seem like a bad idea— "You what?!" She hissed.
"OI TRAFALGAR!" A male voice bellowed. Emma and Law turned to look at where the voice came from. There was a guy that looked like a typical high school delinquent, and behind him stood another four guys. Their uniform was different from her school's. They all carried a weapon of some kind in their hands, Emma spotted a small blade, a baseball bat, and a cudgel. She frowned.
"Did you have to pick a fight with them?" She whispered to Law
Law grinned. "Oh no, I think you're getting the wrong idea here. You're the one who picked a fight with them."
Before Emma could protest, the group walked up to them and the leader spoke: "Who's the one that ordered you to steal from us?!"
Emma didn't know if she wanted to laugh, or cry. For god's sake, she could see where this was going already.
Law nodded his head towards Emma, who sighed and set her bento box on the bench. The next thing she knew, the leader of the small gang grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and pulled her up.
"What's your problem, huh?!" He snarled in her face.
Oh, the nerve of this guy. He was the one who stole her bicycle, and he had the audacity to go around blaming others for his own misfortune? How dare he.
Emma weighed her options. Reasoning with them was out of the question, she was sure the sum of all of their IQs would be a single digit number. It's a miracle they made it past elementary school. Her next option was to just blame Law, but then there is an issue of whether they believed her or not. Her last option is to, quite simply, beat them up. But she's tired.
She sighed. She tried Option 1: Reasoning with them.
"To be fair, you did steal my bicycle. I'm just taking back what's mine."
He sneered. "Oh? Then what about our money, huh?"
In a split second, Emma thought that maybe, just maybe, there's a way to get The Abomination involved in this as well.
She pointed at Law with her thumb. "That's all on him. I don't give a damn about your money."
The guy followed where her thumb pointed at, and saw Law grinning at him. Law shrugged and said, "I'm just a lackey."
'Hah,' Emma thought, 'More like mastermind.'
The guy turned to look at Emma again. "Why should I believe you?"
Emma sighed inwardly. Dragging Law down with her seemed out of the question as well. And she knew for a fact that she had nothing to convince this guy that Law was the mastermind, not her.
'A fight it is, then.'
"You don't have to," she said simply. She clenched her fist and punched him in the face, the force sending him tumbling onto the group of guys behind him. He had let got of his hold on her shirt, hands reaching up to feel his broken nose.
Emma spread her feet further apart in a familiar stance, fists positioned on her sides, and exhaled through her mouth.
The lackey with cudgel ran up to her first. Great, Emma had been eyeing for that.
He raised the cudgel above his head, prepared to strike it down on Emma's head. 'What an amateur,' She thought, as she side-stepped out of the way and punched him in the stomach. In a moment of weakness, he loosen his grip on the cudgel. Emma snatched the weapon from him, swing it out sideways and aimed at the side of his head. The blow was enough to knock him out, He fell to the floor, there was a small trickle of blood that ran from where Emma hit him that ran to the ground.
She's so sore.
At least she was armed with a long-range weapon now. The remaining guys were easy to deal with, they are all amateurs, obviously never trained to fight before. With a series of parries, jabbing, and swinging of the cudgel, Emma knocked all of them out in no time. When she was sure they couldn't get up, she threw the cudgel on the floor.
She heard a slow clap from behind.
"Excellent performance, Sylvers-ya. One of the best dinnertime entertainment I've had," Law said lazily. He was still smirking.
"I heard karma's a bitch. I hope you die a slow, terrible death."
Law's smirk only grew wider. "It's not befitting of someone with a face like that to be so crude. But I suppose I should thank you, these guys have been giving me quite a few problems."
"…Did you just use me to do your dirty work?"
Law patted her head. "And you did a wonderful job."
She raised a fist to punch him—
His tattooed hand grabbed her wrist before she could reach his face. "Now now, no need to get so worked up," he repeated the words he said to her yesterday. It sounded like he was mocking her. "That said, I'm not entirely heartless. In exchange for your services today, how about I do you a favour?"
"Oh really? Then die."
Law chuckled. "No thank you, I'd rather live. But I'll call the shots and decide when I will do you a favour."
"Shouldn't I be the one calling the shots?" Emma asked.
Law grinned. "Nah."
They made their way over to the bench. Law took their forgotten bento boxes and threw them in a nearby waste bin. Emma grabbed her bag.
"Com'on, I'll walk you home," Law offered.
Emma sighed and waved at him tiredly, as if saying 'do whatever you want, I don't care'.
They walked in silence for a while, and Emma's thoughts started sprinting. A sudden realisation flew and hit her smack in the face. Law had to be living somewhere near here, right?
'NOOOOooOOoooooo….' Emma cried internally.
"You…" Emma started.
"Hm?"
Emma swallowed thickly, afraid of the answer to the question she had yet to ask. "You don't happen to live in this neighbourhood, right?"
Law quirked an amused eyebrow. "Why else would I be here?"
Emma sighed. It was a very depressing sigh.
"I live just a few blocks away from you. About 10 minutes if you walk," Law elaborated, completely ignoring the girl.
"And you even know where I stay, great," Emma's tone was dripping with sarcasm.
"You know, if you paid more attention to your surroundings in the morning, you would have seen me a few times."
"…Oh."
Silence took over for the rest of their walk. When they arrived at her apartment building, Law waved a hand at her nonchalantly. His other hand held onto the handles of her bicycle. "See you tomorrow. Be here at 7.30am."
Emma squinted her eyes at him. Law did not wait for her to reply, and started walking away.
—
From that day on, they met every morning, outside of Emma's apartment building, and they would travel to school together.
I had to include Condoriano, it's just too funny. In fact, I hope to bring him back in future chapters.
The books mentioned in this chapter:
Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder: It's an introduction on the history of philosophy, mainly some famous philosophers, and their works.
Underground by Haruki Murakami: The author interviewed the victims, and cult members of Aum Shinrikyo who were involved in the Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995. He compiled their testimonies in this book.