Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or Tokyo Ghoul. I do own my ocs.
Chapter 9 - Survival game
"Aaaah what a nice and peaceful morning," Shachi stretched his arms "I'm starting to get worried!" he said as his face lightly twisted. Uni frowned at him in confusion
"What?!"
"I know!" Penguin groaned and looked at the clock on kitchen's wall "It's seven already, man it feels like the calm before the storm!"
"Should we check?!" Shachi asked while tapping on his chin. Penguin slightly shivered as he remembered the last time he interfered.
"Let it go." Bepo calmly said while chewing on his fishbone "I don't feel any tension in the air yet, they're fine… probably." he stated as relaxed as ever without moving his eyes from the rusty map in his paw. This map of the Grand Line he was looking at with a little frown on his face, was worrying him more than to think about anything else.
"Oy!" Clione said annoyed "Do you ever plan telling us what's wrong?!"
Uni hummed and nodded harshly at Shachi and Penguin. Ikkaku too was staring at them curiously.
"It's the routine!"
"What routine?!" Ikkaku narrowed her eyes. Penguin sighed and moved his cap on his blonde hair
"You guys joined the crew while Lilou-chan was away so… you see the routine basically starts before breakfast, then it happens again like three or four times -at best- during the day."
The three new members tilted their heads and kept staring at him with raised brows. Shachi continued
"Yeah, we know it's happening when we hear either Law or Lilou-chan starts shouting and then the whole place starts shaking or at the best case which is very rare one of them shows up all grumpy and they keep ignoring or roasting each other for few hours until the next phase of the routine." he explained so typically like he was telling them about the shogatsu festival. Uni's eyes widened in shock
"They argue that much?!"
Penguin let out a sarcastic laughter and slammed on Uni's shoulder
"Oh you wish, my friend! Hahahaha! Trust me you better hope never to see them doing that!"
Bepo took his eyes off the map and frowned at him
"You're exaggerating!" he groaned and shook his head before going back to studying the map again. Shachi stared at him in disbelief and leaned on the dining table
"Huh?!" he slammed both hands on the table as he nearly shouted "You forgot how many boats we lost while they were on rampage fighting each other to death?!"
"WHATT?!" Uni and Clione shouted in unison with terrified expressions. Ikkaku raised an eyebrow
"So how's this two captain thing even working if they argue that much?!"
"Oh it's not about that!" Penguin laughed out "When it comes to the captain responsibilities they're like one mind. They just fight over stuff, like, literally small, simple stuff!"
Ikkaku's next question didn't make it out of her mouth as her eyes landed on the vexed face of her captain walking into the kitchen with his eyes pacing through every corner of the room. Penguin immediately tensed, watching Law's tall figure stopping a few steps away from the table, sending murderous gazes at them with his fingers locked around his nodachi.
"Showtime!" Shachi let out a short cough covering the words. Law's furious eyes landed on him for a second before asking
"Where is Lilou?"
His voice was dangerously calm, which meant he was angrier than to even sound like it. Bepo finally threw the map on the table and rubbed his eyes, he then looked at Law
"Morning Law." he said casually "She's not here, maybe she's in her office."
"She's not."
"The infirmary?" Penguin asked carefully while slumping in his chair.
"She's not anywhere on the ship." Law stated with the same threatening calm voice as he sat behind the table.
"Well she must've gone out earlier since… we haven't… seen her… yet…" Uni's voice dropped slowly and his face turned completely pale as Law suddenly stood up again, growling like a wild animal. He turned to the door without saying any more words and left the kitchen.
The air around them remained pretty tense for a minute after he was gone, until Shachi cleared his throat and broke the uncomfortable silence
"Yeah that was a half assed routine." he announced. Ikkaku twisted her brows
"It wasn't… that bad!" she said somehow uncertain about how true her statement was. Clione's eyes widened staring at her
"Did you not see his face?! He was ready to bite someone's head off just because he couldn't find her!"
"Oh, come on!" Uni snarled at him "He was clearly angry about some other shit."
"Nah, I told you…" Penguin shrugged and rolled his eyes "That's just what they do. Fuck I just hope she doesn't come back anytime soon!" he twisted his face thinking about the potential of another fighting session. Bepo grabbed the map again as he stood up with a frown on his face
"You better wish otherwise. We have a problem we need to discuss with both of them as soon as possible."
"What problem?!" Clione's question remained unanswered as Bepo just left the kitchen while absentmindedly rubbing the back of his head with his eyes locked on the map.
Still irritated, Law kept pacing through the infirmary looking for something to distract him from the thoughts of being betrayed and ignored and everything else he was thinking and feeling. He was taking overthinking to some whole new extremes since the moment he woke up finding out she had left his side while he was sleeping. That was just unacceptable, after what they shared last night, how could she just leave him there and go out?!
He felt betrayed, even worse than betrayed, he was feeling used! She was just merely amusing herself with him, he concluded. And those memories she showed him, were all about nothing but a childish crush she once may had on him.
"Dammit!" he shouted and kicked a wall before letting his exhausted body fall on his chair. It was all his fault again, allowing her to get her revenge for being humiliated after having him confess to his love for her, and letting himself believe that he could actually have what he always wanted to have with her. She just played him, like she always played everyone else. And he was mad at himself more than he was mad at Lilou. He was the one who let his guard down, he was the one who fell for the idea that she actually felt the same, basically, he was the one being absolutely and literally stupid to think Lilou could really love someone like him.
"To hell with it!" he grumbled and pressed his fists against his eyes. If that was the way she wanted to play, he could play dirtier just perfectly. Letting out a deep breath, he picked up a file laying on his desk. 'Awesome, more of her!' he thought annoyed looking at her handwriting. It was the file she prepared for him to study her stupid thesis.
His eyes sluggishly moved from one page to another for minutes, only to frown and sit straight as he stopped on a specific graph she had drawn. She was written down all the change of percentages she calculated in just an hour after injecting her DNA into all those organs, and compared them to the ones from Caesar Clown's records on her in ten months. The difference was drastically huge. Caesar's numbers only reached higher for a short amount of time after each case of cannibalism, then dropping even lower than the previous ones. He was only reaching successful records by feeding her with other Ghouls, and the results weren't even stable on a long-term scale. Lilou's recent calculations on the other hand, were showing raise in the quantity of Rc cells by the percentage of 2 per minute, without any kind of nutrition from the outside.
He frowned deeper while tapping his finger on his chin as he continued reading. Everything seemed terribly promising, and the fact that it was coming from Lilou's subtle and incisive mind, was making it even harder for him to object. He went back and re-read the file over and over again, looking for the slightest possible error, but in the end, not even one single exclude or misjudgment managed to catch his sharp eyes. She covered every possible question his obsessive mind could come up with in those pages, and even went further explaining, defending and giving solutions to every tiny potential case of physical and mental side-effect that could occur.
As much as it was painful for him to accept, his opinion on her thesis being nothing more than a fantasy, was one hundred percent and completely changed. It could perfectly work out, only if she managed to fight back the general weakness of her body during the operation. He spent the following three hours studying the labeled organs she had prepared, with such focus that he didn't even notice the light footsteps entering the infirmary.
"My! you read the file? I thought I had to force you into it!" her cheerful voice getting closer to him from behind made him clench his jaw.
All the anguish and rage he was feeling towards her came back to him at once. He counted to five before facing her, covering his face with his most typically nonchalant expression and erasing any kind of emotion from his steel-like eyes. Sending a cold glance at her, he nodded his head after taking his eyes off her grinning face
"I said I'll look into it."
Lilou's wide smile dropped immediately by the awful amount of coldness pouring out his voice and she stopped walking. She shook her head and started to move again until she was standing right in front of him.
"And?" she asked hopefully while staring at his figure.
"And what?" he answered without taking his eyes off the microscope on the table. She frowned
"Can we do it sooner than a week?"
"Maybe." he almost whispered, still ignoring her eyes. She crossed her arms and stared at him for few seconds with twisted eyebrows. He was acting like nothing out of normality happened last night. It was the typical Law who was feeling like being a jerk she was looking at, not the sweet and loving one she slept with just hours ago! After gazing at the top of his hat for a couple minutes she rolled her eyes
"Alright, you know whatever you're looking at probably won't be growing legs running away right?"
He distanced his face just a little bit from the microscope and raised an eyebrow at her while still leaning on the table. Looking directly into his freezing eyes, she shocked for a second 'Nah, he would so not do that!'
"What's wrong?" he asked with a very slight trace of mockery in his voice. She widened her bright grey eyes and moved her head closer to his
"Uh, your attitude?" she tilted her head "What's wrong with you?!"
He sighed and stretched his neck backwards then kept staring back at her from the other side of the table while leaning his upper body on both hands. He studied her confused eyes for a moment
"Nothing's wrong, I'm looking into your thesis." he kept his voice as uninterested as possible, determined to make her feel as uncomfortable as he could. She put her palms on the metal table a few inches away from his
"Law-" she narrowed her eyes "Do you… remember anything specific from last night?! Like, us having sex, or you know something like that?!"
He smirked at her questioning face "Of course I do! That was really fun actually!"
She straightened her back and tried to smile at him "Ok, so… why are you acting weird and all?!"
He stood straight too and frowned before starting to add to his notes "I'm exactly as I always am, Saru."
"Yeah! That's the weird thing!"
He stopped writing and looked at her from the corner of his eyes "How did you expect me to act? Waving an 'I heart Lilou' banner on the deck?!" he smirked again.
"You can't be serious…" she almost whispered, trying to keep herself calm and keeping her jaw from falling to the floor. 'It's just a very bad joke!' she thought. He shrugged and walked towards his working desk
"I am. So we slept together, big deal!" he dropped the notebook on his desk and turned around gazing at her with his eyes viciously shining "Although, we can do it again if you liked it that much." a mocking smile was forming on the corner of his lips.
Lilou stood there looking at him without saying a word, just wishing she didn't love the equipment in the infirmary that much, so she could smash his fucking head on every object around. She shook her head in disbelief
"You're unbelievable…" her voice was slightly shaking in rage "I would fucking kill you right here and now if anyone else could perform that operation on me!"
"Oh, I'm sorry!" he raised his brows as if he was shocked "I didn't mean to force you into anything, I just said we could since you seem pretty concerned about it."
"SHUT YOUR FUCKIN' MOUTH, YOU SICK BASTARD!" she screamed at the top of her lungs and threw four dangerously sharp scalpels right at his face, which he dodged without even blinking, just keeping his eyes on her blood-colored ones and continued mocking her with that wicked smirk. She turned and held up her middle finger for him as she stormed out. Law's smirk only faded when the last feather of her coat disappeared from the corner of the doorframe. That was harder than he expected it to be, even for a second in the middle of their conversation, he was about to fall for her innocent eyes again. He sighed, trying to erase her raged face from his mind as he went back to his work.
Lilou kept raging inside the corridors pointlessly as she was more furious to be able to think clearly where she's heading. She was disgusted, by literally everything. Disgusted by the very first time they met, all those years they lived together, everything they did, everywhere they've been, everything he touched, everything about Law was making her sick. She was even disgusted by herself for letting him have his way with her. He was nothing more than a sick bastard, and she knew it. For fuck's sake she already knew it and yet she let herself fall for his words. 'I should've fuckin' eat him in that cave!' she was hurt, probably more than any other time before, and she was clearly feeling her heart shattering into pieces, but she couldn't even cry. The whole thing was just too surreal to absorb. Slamming the upper deck's door wide open, she almost made Clione fall off the railings as she walked forward with heavy steps and pure fury flaming in her red and black eyes.
"Where's everyone?" she grunted at his terrified face.
"In the navigating room, I was looking for you, Lilou-chan!" he tried to cover the fear in his voice "Bepo said he wants to discuss something important with everyone and captain Law said he doesn't know where you are so I was checking everywhere!" he explained quickly. Lilou growled hearing Law's name
"DAMMIT I LOVE THE NAVIGATING ROOM!" she screamed out and two flaring wings pierced their way out through her shoulders "I CAN'T KILL HIM THERE EITHER!" she was breathing hard and her chest was feeling heavier than usual. Clione carefully took one step towards her, shocked by the sight of her activated kagune.
"Lilou-chan…" he said as calmly as he could "I… joined this crew because I knew I would have not one, but two strong and dependable leaders by my side while I'm following my dream…"
His sudden change of attitude gained Lilou's attention. She looked right into his eyes as he continued "And I'm pretty sure I made the right choice. And right now, whatever it is that makes you furious enough to scream such a thing about Law, please try to find the strength to remember there're six other people in here who deeply believe in you, love you and respect you, so… please just, think of your nakama when you need comfort, and the fact that no matter what happens, you can always just rely on us… and also, please come to the navigating room with me cause I don't think Bepo was in his best mood!" the worry of making her angrier washed off from his face soon as her wings vanished into the air and her eyes turned back to their bright original color. She studied his face for few seconds before grinning at him
"That was a funny attempt to calm an angry Ghoul, I liked it!" she laughed childishly to his relieved face "Let's go, now I'm dying to know what is it that managed to drag Bepo outta his good mood!" she said jumping towards the metal door. Clione laughed at her unexpected calmness and started running after her "Aye captain!"
Outside the navigating room, she hesitated before opening the door and looked back at the brown-haired man standing behind her. She gathered all her strength to smile and nearly whispered "Arigatō, Clione." before stepping into the room. Black spots on the white fluffy hat resting on Law's head, wasn't the best first thing to catch her eyes as she entered. He was sitting on Bepo's desk and his eyes were shadowed by the visor of his hat, he didn't turn his head even an inch as Lilou walked inside. Bepo turned to her
"Oh hey Lil. We were waiting for you guys." he then walked behind the same desk Law was lounging on "Alright everyone, come here." he tapped his white furry finger on a map "This is the map of the Grand Line you stole years ago, Lilou. Now, we're the closest we've ever been to entering the Grand Line, and since we already bought or stole everything we needed, I don't think we have any more business here in Loguetown. So I say we can leave today if any of you can solve this one thing that's been freaking me out since I woke up!"
Lilou shook her head "We're not leaving today. There's this party or ceremony thing in town tonight. Smokey's gonna be there, and so am I. Then there's this one other thing I should do before entering the Grand Line, so we have like four days or so." she explained to Bepo. Law's jaw clenched as she mentioned the ceremony and looked at her from the corner of his eyes, but remained quiet. Bepo nodded once
"Ok, that's better. We can ask around if we couldn't come up with anything. But for now…" He grabbed the old map and held it up for them so they could all see it while he explained "The entrance of the Grand Line is through the Reverse Mountain. I never thought it would be true but, that mountain is actually what we're supposed to sail on to get into that ocean. Like, we literally have to climb a mountain up from this side and then down on the other side in order to enter the Grand Line."
The room fell into an awkward silence for few seconds. Law frowned at the map and looked at it more carefully
"He's right! There's something like a pathway drawn on the Reverse Mountain…"
"What do you mean climb the mountain?!" Shachi asked narrowing his eyes at the map "How?"
"That's exactly my problem!" said Bepo annoyed "I would say we can rely on the engine's force but I don't think it's gonna be that simple. And I can't be sure anytime before reaching the mountain, or at least being close enough to see if there's anything like abnormal sea currents or something like that."
Ikkaku grabbed her chin while twisting her eyebrows "We don't even know what this mountain looks like, I just keep imagining a huge mountain with a big flat peak! You know, literally, reversed!"
"Um, guys…" Lilou finally talked and everyone turned to her, except for Law who was still studying the map so concerned that his nose was almost touching the paper. Lilou looked at Bepo and said "We already knew most people go into the Grand Line through Reverse Mountain, but I was specifically looking into it from the Marines' memories I was crafting recently. When I got Garp's touch, I realized they're constantly using the Calm Belt to enter or exit the Grand Li-"
"Calm Belt is filled with sea kings, we'll be eaten along with the Polar Tang the second we enter it!" Law interrupted and nonchalantly stated without taking his eyes off the map. She twinkled her nose and tried not to yell at him in response
"No shit?!" she rolled her eyes "I'm not finished yet. They have this technology which they cover the bottom of their battleships with kairoseki. Apparently, it releases some sort of energy that keeps the sea kings away." she grinned at Penguin "I can steal some today and you'll attach them under the sub." she said cheerfully. His face melted as she said it
"Why am I always the one doing this kind of stuff!?"
"Because you're better than any of us at this stuff."
His cheeks slightly flushed and he tried not to look happy about her compliment "Fine that's right! I'll do it."
Law scoffed from the other side of the room "And the fact that she's better than any of us at manipulating people." he said mockingly.
Everybody tensed as a dark shadow covered Lilou's face. She glared at him with a murderous look in her eyes
"What is that supposed to mean?" she asked dangerously calm. He smirked
"I just pointed out your boldest quality. Take it as a compliment, if that's what you want it to mean." he shrugged while tracks of amusement could be seen on his face.
"And I pointed out the fact that Penguin is good at taking care of the ship, what's your fucking problem here?" she grunted. Penguin's face turned pale
"Guys I totally like taking care of the ship! Seriously! Don't start fighting over me!" he held up his hands while saying and took a step back towards the door.
"It's not you!" Lilou and Law both growled in unison while glaring at each other. Lilou suddenly laughed out in his face
"You know what, you're right! This is literally what I do, manipulating people. But I also have the dignity to stay true with my friends. So sure, thanks for the compliment!" she said cheerfully, then took off her hat and dramatically bowed. Law clenched his jaw with just a little less pressure needed to crack his teeth. She looked away after a few seconds of amusing herself with the amount of fury dancing on his face.
"Bepo, is there anything else you wanna share?" she asked the polar bear. He shook his head in negative response
"That was all. You bring the kairoseki, and I'll be asking around about the Reverse Mountain just in case."
"Great!" she turned on her heels "I'll be leaving in a little while then. Anyone wants coffee?"
"Ooooh! Sure, if it's your coffee!" Shachi cheered and followed her out.
"Is it that good? Cause I'm sure you have enough caffeine in your system already!" Uni asked as he was heading out too. Penguin punched him while running to the corridor and shouted "Lilou-chan's coffee is HEAVEN!"
"Woohoo! COFFEE!" the echo of Ikkaku's cheering voice was the last one to disappear outside the navigating room. Bepo hesitated in the doorframe and looked back at Law
"You're coming?"
"In a minute." he mumbled with a dark tone in his voice, while looking outside the wide window without actually seeing anything.
"To be fair, you're not always right, Law. You can do awful things without even noticing how wrong they are." he said as casual as ever before walking out. Law huffed with annoyance and closed his angered eyes. Maybe. The fact that Bepo always used to avoid giving any comments about their fights, made him think about what he said. Maybe, he could at least give her the benefit of doubt. Maybe, just maybe he was wrong about the whole thing, maybe it was just his misjudgment and nothing more. But even if that was the case, the damage was already done. Even he would've hated himself for saying the things he said to Lilou in the infirmary. Not that it was his first time saying such things to a woman, and not that he ever even cared, but this time it was her. While sitting there all numb and miserable listening to the buzz in his ears, he felt like he's constantly running on a circle, making the same mistakes over and over again without ever learning his lesson. Just keep ruining everything after each time he managed to make a little progress, and this last one was his biggest fuck up in their whole history together. He sighed and pressed his eyes 'Just go to her and fuckin' talk! How hard can it be?!' he snapped at himself as resting the heavy nodachi on his shoulder and slowly walking out.
"I'm making some toast Lilou-chan, you want some?" Ikkaku asked Lilou who was staring at the afternoon paper. The other five had already left for the town and it was just the two of them in the kitchen. Lilou looked up at her a little shocked, the unusual question she asked dragged her completely out of her gloomy thoughts.
"Um…" her heartbeat dropped for a second. It's been years since the last time she was in a situation where she had to explain she can't eat anything but human flesh!
"Thanks, Ikkaku! I… don't really eat… toasts…" she said with a childish shyness coating her words, not sure if she was supposed to be thankful to Law for respecting her privacy and not explaining every weird thing about her to the new guys, or be annoyed at him for not doing the awkward job for her. Ikkaku gave her a cheerful smile
"Oh! You like something else? There's still some sandwiches left since this morning."
"Um… I don't really eat, Ikkaku… generally!" she nearly whispered in response. Ikkaku stared at her, recalling the first time she met Lilou awake. Her jaw slightly dropped
"Crap! I'm sorry!" she said with a sharp voice "I thought you were just-"
"That's the only thing I can digest! My God! You didn't think I was eating a human arm just for fun, did you?!" she laughed out despite the lump forming in her throat, trying not to look as miserable as she was feeling at the moment. Ikkaku shook her head shocked
"Not for fun, I just never thought you wouldn't be able to eat normal food at all!"
"Another perk of being a Ghoul!" she said bitter throwing the newspaper on the table "Eating up murderers and rapers and all types of criminals to survive!" she continued while rubbing her eyes. Ikkaku sat in front of her with her toasts ready and studied her face for a while before talking.
"That's…"
"Gross. I know, trust me…"
Ikkaku shook her head "I was going to say that's brave. Not anyone can live on like that and still be as strong in the heart as you are."
Lilou's eyes widened at her statement "You don't know about my heart." she said coldly staring at her face. Ikkaku sweetly smiled
"I don't. But I have a gift for feeling people's intentions, and there are no ill intentions in this submarine." she cheerfully grinned at Lilou's grumpy face.
"What do you mean?"
Ikkaku shrugged "I just feel it immediately when someone has a bad nature. It's one hundred percent accurate!" she said proudly as waving a toast in the air.
"Like a radar?!"
"Something like that."
"I don't think your radar is working well in here!" she growled. Ikkaku remained quiet for moments. She knew what was her point, but wasn't sure if Lilou wanted to hear an answer or not.
"He's not a bad person…" she finally talked with a calm voice. Lilou moved her stormy grey eyes to her brown ones without saying a word as she continued "…just paranoid maybe!"
Lilou kept looking at her for few seconds. "I know he's not a bad person. I grew up with him…" she mumbled before standing up "He's tricky to deal with, even for someone like me." she stretched her arms and walked towards the door "I gotta go now, Sakura is back. Are you sure you're okay staying behind? I don't have much to do until Sakura gives me locations, I can stay on board till the guys are back."
"It's fine." Ikkaku smiled at her "I'll read a book or something on the deck. Enjoying the weather!"
"Ok, thanks for offering me toasts!" Lilou softly giggled as she left for the deck.
After sending Sakura off to the town, she jumped down on the port and after a five minute walk into the town she started to feel extremely overwhelmed by sensing a pair of eyes following her around every corner. She was being followed again but this time, the stalker was hiding themselves from her extraordinary sharp eyes like a professional. She took a turn to right into a side street and lowered her speed while whistling a song and tucking her tattooed hands in her pockets, ears fully open and alarmed and her sense of smell was awaken completely. She jumped on a portico's top to her left side, then bending her knees, she pushed down her feet jumping high and smoothly landed on a rooftop. Her heart was pounding but not in fear, in excitement. According to what she heard and saw the previous day, a little voice inside her head was consistently telling her that it could be Dragon following her again. Meeting him wasn't as terrifying in her mind as meeting Luffy or Ace. Dragon sure was her father, but not once she had met him back when she was still a human, and that was bringing the possibility of being judged by him very low. And the fact that he was known as the most wanted and dangerous man in the world, was making it a challenge for her, to find him, confront him or even have fight with him to understand the nature and the extents of his power.
She twinkled her nose surprised, catching a familiar scent for a brief moment. She growled and looked down at the side street, her eyes specifically searching for any movement in the shadows. 'Creep!' she thought annoyed before letting her body fly down and lightly land in front of his tall figure. Not even a bit surprised, he halted before her
"So your senses are weakened too."
"What do you think you're doing?" she grunted.
"I'm following you." Law answered honestly.
"Why?!"
"To make sure you're in safety." he smirked "Considering how long it took you to finally realize me, I believe that was a good decision."
"Don't you have anything better to do?!" she clenched her jaw and turned away start walking again.
"Did you know your brother has a fanclub?" he ignored her question as he followed her.
"A what?!"
"Some weird looking guy is gathering people to set sail after Mugiwara-ya. Seems pretty obsessed with him." he chuckled. Lilou frowned
"The number of people setting sail after him is starting to get me worried!"
"Who else is going?"
"Smokey. He's leaving in a day or two, and I don't think he's going on a vacation or something." her frown deepened "He'll be a trouble if not stopped. He's just a captain, but considering how strong he actually is, it almost feels like he's being underestimated by the higher ups."
Law hummed and before saying anything, got distracted by the pink silhouette approaching them from the clear sky.
"Sakura!" Lilou cheered and ran over her as she landed.
"Rouuu!" she blinked softly and images of a mansion in the royal part of the city got transmitted into Lilou's mind. She smiled and patted the soft feathers on her head
"Nice job, Sakura! Let's go!" she said excited with a wide grin on her face. Law narrowed his steel grey eyes at them
"What exactly are you plotting?"
She sent a freezing gaze his way over her shoulder
"I told Bepo I'll bring the kairoseki. You would hear it if you weren't so busy throwing shade!"
He struggled to stop himself from loosing his temper again, and walked towards them calmly instead.
"Let's go then." he said nonchalantly stroking Sakura's wing.
"Excuse me?!"
"What you thought I'd keep my eyes off you with this vulnerable and dysfunctional state you're in?!"
"Do your own damn business, you're not my babysitter!" she grunted at him furiously.
"Argue all day, you'll just waste your time and mine!"
After a good twenty minutes of objecting, rationalizing, threatening and trying to reason with him, she finally gave up and let him tag along. Sakura dropped them off in the garden of that mansion in less than five minutes, then sat next to them under the shadow while Lilou was carefully observing the break-in ways of the building and Law was observing her.
"Lil?"
"Shshsh!"
"Lil... I think you wanna hear this!" he whispered.
"What?!" she hissed at him as quiet as possible, extremely annoyed. His mind gone blank for a second looking into her magical eyes inches away from his, and the words dried out in his mouth. He wanted to kiss her delicate fingers and just apologize for being such a dick, promise her that he would never do such a stupid thing again, that he will try as hard as she wants him to and change into a better person just for her sake, and that how much he was ashamed of himself for getting carried away before even waiting for her to come back and hearing her side of the story. But none of those things came out of his mouth instead
"Why did you left?!"
"What?!"
He frowned at her stubbornly "Why did you left me while I was sleeping?!"
Her eyes locked on his face, and if they were not wide open, he would consider the possibility of a narcolepsy attack, as her face wasn't showing any sign or expression an awake person would show. After few seconds of absolute surprise, she finally asked
"Is that what it's all about?!"
"Well, imagine trusting someone and sharing your deepest feelings with them, then after making love with them with all the love you got, you go to sleep thinking you're gonna wake up to see their face next to you, and then you open your eyes and find yourself being left alone while yo-"
"Shshshsh!"
"While you were asleep!" he lowered his voice and whispered "So, yeah! That's what it's all about!"
"Oh my good God!" she whispered shocked with her eyes widened "Law..."
"You could at least leave a note! If whatever you needed to do was that necessary!" he then kept staring into her big eyes seriously. She blinked a few times and shook her head
"Law, I just... I woke up so early and I was feeling too energetic to stay in bed, and you were sleeping for God's sake! I just didn't want to wake you that early!"
She studied his profile as he was looking away all grumpy and offended, and tried really hard to hold her laughter back. He was suddenly reminding Lilou of the eleven year old Law when she thought amused, that he was still just an angry boy inside. She reached out her hand wrapping her little fingers around his index like a baby
"Law?" she sighed "You should seriously stop doing that."
He looked at her irritated from the corner of his eyes "Doing what?"
"Judging by the appearances. Look, I feel you, really! But that doesn't make the things you told me this morning ok. I was the happiest girl on earth last night, and then you just... crushed me with those words! Imagine how I felt after you just treated me like a random girl you hooked up with in some bar! If anything you told me last night was real, then you need to stop acting like a baby, and start resp-"
"Room!" he drew his sword without warning and swung it just a few inches away from the spot she was sitting. Lilou swiftly turned and dodged a dropping headless body just in time.
"Aaaarghhh-"
Law pushed the severed head on the ground trying to keep it quiet
"Make another noise and I'll replace your mouth with your own balls!" he grunted while pressing his hand on the man's mouth.
"He's a servant!" Lilou whispered looking at his uniform as she dragged his body around the bush Law was crouching behind. She slammed his headless body to the ground "That was an important conversation you messed with!" she growled gazing into his terrified widened eyes. They tied him to the tree Sakura was resting next to, and before Law knew it, Lilou started running towards the mansion's backdoor. He caught up to her a moment before she was about to rush in
"What's your plan?! "
"What plan?" she chuckled and chose the stairway to her right. His eyes widened "Please tell me at least you know where we going!" They were running down the stairs at full speed.
"Sakura said this building has cells in the basement. We're going down! The basement is down! Yehihihihi!"
His next words never made it out as she suddenly stopped and he crashed into her back, causing the both of them to fall and roll down the following stairs. He rubbed his head while trying to get back on his feet
"Think things through, you baka!"
"Woohoo! Check this out!" she laughed out jumping on her feet. They were standing in the middle of a dark corridor, surrounded by many cells on both sides, with at least twenty pairs of eyes staring at them shocked from behind the bars.
"Man! There's a lot of people down here!" she loudly announced "Sorry to disturb your peaceful evening but would you mind lending us some of those nice handcuffs you're wearing?" she shouted cheerfully to the prisoners.
"Keep it down, would you?!" Law snapped at her and checked the stairway worriedly.
"Who are you?" asked an old man, still in the shock of their unexpected entrance. Lilou turned to him
"Hi! My name is Monkey D. Lilou, nice to meet ya!" she grinned at him. He narrowed his eyes
"None of us would be here in the first place if we could lend you these handcuffs, you know!"
"Oh!" she raised her eyebrows "He's got a point!"
"Lil..." Law turned to her extremely annoyed "How exactly did you want to get the kairoseki cuffs?!"
"Well, asking nicely at first and if-"
"You do remember eating a devil fruit at some point in your life, right?!"
"Right! Hahahaha! Good thing I brought you too then!" she laughed out and immediately kneeled on the ground, picking up small pieces of rock and filling her little backpack with them.
"Here!" she handed the backpack to Law with a wide grin and snapped her fingers "Do that shambles thing." He kept looking at her with annoyance for a second before mumbling a quick Room and Shambles. Ignoring the confused and cheerful sounds of the prisoners, he gave back her bag, now full of kairoseki handcuffs. She looked inside and hummed
"Mhmm... I guess we need some more..." walking towards that old man's cell, she grabbed the bar in front of her "Oy ossan! Isn't there any- mor... meeehh~~~" her face melted and she slowly fell down. Law rolled his eyes before dragging her away from the kairoseki bars
"Just why are you like this!" he lifted her weakened body and threw her on his shoulder "That's probably enough, let's get outta here."
"No we... ugh... I feel... so weak!" she said with a lot of effort "Upstairs... go to the master room upstairs..."
"Why?!" he growled while running up.
"It's the bank owner's house. I need to disguise myself as her wife for the ceremony."
"Disguise me as the husband then! You're not going there alone either."
"Aww!" she giggled while hanging on his muscular shoulder "You wanna take me to the party? Cute!" she giggled again as he made an annoyed noise and ignored her. Law stopped and hesitated as he reached the end of the stairs.
"Go on." she said confident "You're in disguise."
Law sighed and replaced her on his shoulder as he advanced in the luxurious mansion. A servant girl walked past him
"Jason! What's this?!" she asked Law with a frown "You're not gonna feed the street dogs again, do you?!" she was staring angrily at him while continuously tapping her left foot on the wooden floor.
"No Jason, you're not." Lilou whispered as low as possible "I'm a huge box of jewelry Madam Chiyoko asked for to try on, for... the ceremony!"
"Madam Chiyoko asked for this box of jewels." he repeated like a robot and made Lilou sigh, disappointed in his acting skills. The servant girl immediately pulled herself out of his way
"Oh God, hurry up then! I don't need anymore of her screaming for today!" she mumbled the last part and ran off to the next room. Law continued walking towards the grand staircase in front of them.
"Who's Jason?" he whispered.
"The guy you wanted to put his balls on his face."
"Fabulous!" he groaned and stopped upstairs looking around.
"Go left... Law! Left!"
"I am going left!"
"Then right! Go right!"
"Are you fucking with me?!"
"I'm upside down, doctor! I'm feeling dizzy..."
"Walk on your own then!"
"Yosh! That's it, stop. Stop!"
He stopped in front of a huge mahogany door and knocked. Lilou lifted her head up raising an eyebrow
"Seriously?!" she said with boredom. Law shrugged and opened the door.
"It's empty, genius!" he said while closing the door and put Lilou down. She listened carefully for few seconds, then she grinned and readjusted the fluffy hat on her raven hair. Walking forward, she turned to face Law before opening the wardrobe
"She's in the shower." she picked a silk blue dress and held it in front of her body while checking herself in the mirror "Ito Mamoru is the man who runs Loguetown's only bank, madam Chiyoko is his wife, two kids, an eight year old son and a fourteen year old daughter. Not quite a happy marriage, he spends all day working in his office and most of the nights drinking and gambling. Kids aren't good at school but daddy's money keeps them in there. Chiyoko cheated on Mamoru once with one of his colleagues, and her guilty conscience is keeping her awake at nights. That's why she always seems restless and nervous and walking around the house screaming at the staff." she picked another dress and threw the silky one on bed "Their son is a werewolf but no one knows his secret, they lock him up in a dungeon every full moon and people think he's out of town visiting his grandma, while he's clawing the walls and howling at the ceiling. The girl ho-"
"Um, Lil?" Law cleared his throat "Did you get all this information by touching that Jason guy?!"
"Oh, no just the names and the kids. I'm taking guesses bout their life." she shrugged and threw the second dress on the silky one. Law rolled his eyes
"Werewolf? Really?!"
She looked at him with disbelief "You can never know, Law! Don't be so closeminded!" she picked a long black dress and gasped "I am so wearing this tonight!"
Law looked at the bathroom's door soon as he heard the water stopped running.
"Here comes the mother of werewolf!" he chuckled. Lilou pulled a white pistol out of her long boots. Pointing it at the bathroom's direction, she waited for madam Chiyoko to come out. She looked at Law's questioning eyes and whispered
"She might wanna scream!"
The door opened and before taking more than two steps inside the room, Chiyoko's eyes widened at the sight of two complete strangers waiting for her outside her shower. She froze there in her bright red robe towel and covered her mouth staring at Lilou's pistol pointing at her head. Lilou carefully took a step forward
"Hi! I know it's not the best time and I'm very sorry, but would you please calmly go over there and sit on your bed while you're not screaming?"
Chiyoko uncovered her mouth and hesitated before doing what she was told. She sat down on the bed and looked at their faces with her honey-colored eyes
"I know who you people are! My husband is going to come home any minute, if you think you're getting away with this-"
"Oh, great! We have a little business with him too." Lilou gave her a wide smile and leaned forward. She placed her palm on Chiyoko's shaking hand and looked directly into her eyes
"In two minutes, we will leave this room, and you will lock the door behind us and go to bed. You won't be waking up until tomorrow morning and you will not remember anything that happened after you stepped out of the bathroom. Tomorrow you will only remember that you went to the party with your husband, and that you had a lovely time. Understood?"
"Yes." Chiyoko answered calmly with her eyes paralyzed. Lilou gave her a sweet smile
"And thank you for the outfit."
Grabbing the black dress, a pair of heels and a set of jewelry, she walked out of the room after Law. Taking care of Mamoru went as smoothly as his wife and by the time they came back to Sakura, it was almost time to head for the city hall.
Law pulled the tie he was wearing and loosened its tightness with an annoyed look on his face
"I don't get you! We're in disguise anyway, why do I have to wear a suit? I feel violated!" he rumbled.
"Because it's more fun! Yehihihi!" she giggled and waved her long hair over her shoulders "But to be honest, I wish we were disguising ourselves as less corrupted people..."
"What do you mean?"
"Those prisoners we saw earlier, they weren't all criminals or something. They were being kept there just to be transferred to the next human auction. It's definitely illegal in Loguetown, and it's definitely Mamoru's favorite hobby!"
Law shrugged "It's not new, you know that. Human auctions are a huge part of every big city's underground businesses."
"I know..." she mumbled "But it's making me sick. I bet some of them were just normal citizens only with special talents, interesting enough to be sold as a slave... maybe we should've freed them..."
"They didn't ask for help, Saru. Don't blame yourself for weak people whose not even trying to be freed."
A bunch of noisy kids ran past them in the opposite direction, shouting their words to each other loudly. Law frowned at them and continued walking, only to stop suddenly and turn to see Lilou's shocked face staring at that kids running further.
"HEY!"
Law jumped at her unexpected yell. She pointed at a little boy in the group
"You! Come here!"
"Lil, wha-"
"The rest of you can go, he'll catch up!" she said glaring at the scared kids and kept watching them until they were nowhere to be seen anymore. She smiled at the green-haired little boy's worried face
"What's your name?"
"Ryuu…" he murmured, somehow afraid of her. Lilou kneeled in front of his little figure still smiling
"Ryuu, what a nice name…" she leaned her face closer to his "Ryuu? Will you tell me exactly what you just said to your friend?"
"Um, ye-s… I said… run to the harbor, Miss." Lilou shook her head
"No, no. Before that, sweetie. I heard something else too, and I want you to say it again, and be more specific." her tone was kind and very serious at the same time, making the little boy more uncomfortable.
"I said that… um, Smoker-san in setting sail, let's run to the harbor… and wave at him…"
Lilou hummed and and took his little hand
"I see. Now, Ryuu, I want you to do something for me, ok?" he shook his head up and down and kept staring at her
"Good boy. You will run to the harbor, faster than the wind itself, and tell him that you saw a bunch of pirates plotting an attack on the ceremony in the great hall tonight. Very, very big and dangerous pirates. You will make Smoker-san stay in town, Ryuu. Ok?"
"Ok, Miss." the boy shook his head and smiled before turning and running at the opposite way as fast as his short legs were allowing him to. Law raised an eyebrow
"Where are you going?!"
"To the harbor!" she said like it was the most obvious thing.
"Lil… let it go."
"what?!"
"Let-it-go! Why are you even so obsessed with this guy? His status isn't even that high!"
"Because he's not sitting behind a desk. He moves and acts, he'll see and hear things that probably none of the Marines I've ever touched will. And he is going to be a problem if we don't know what's in his mind." she said calmly as she walked down the street next to Law. Law rolled his eyes
"You just wanna protect Mugiwara-ya! Why can't you just believe in your brother?!"
"I believe in Luffy more than anyone else, Law. And yes I do want to protect him, but this guy has the potential to become our problem too!"
She took the last turn and immediately halted as the harbor appeared in front of her, her eyes locked on the silhouette of a navy ship sailing further in the ocean, carrying Smoker and his sword geek assistant away.
"Guess he didn't run fast enough. In that case..."
Law sighed and took the tie off over his head
"Don't even think about it!"
She remained quiet staring at the ship with her face as solid as the ground she was standing on. Law turned to the direction leading to their own ship and grabbed her waist
"We're setting sail today, let's go."
"We're not."
Law turned his face to her with raised brows. The determination on her face made him wish that for once, her next words won't be as crazy as they always were.
"We'll do the operation tonight, Law." she grinned at his disappointed face and started walking towards the Polar Tang.
Law threw the bag of kairoseki handcuffs on the dining room and sat down. Penguin pulled them out and scratched his nose while counting them.
"You think they'll do?" Law asked him curious. He nodded
"I guess it's enough. I'll change the design and divide them into more organized pieces." he grinned at Law "And hope they will save us from getting digested inside of a Seaking's stomach!"
"So we're really leaving tonight?" Ikkaku asked excited.
"I don't think so. Probably tomorrow morning." he straightened his figure on the chair "Guys, listen… we're going to perform an operation on Lilou tonight. Since Penguin has his hands full with preparing the sub, I need Shachi and Ikkaku to help me out, Bepo and Uni to be ready to keep her put in case she goes on a rampage while unconscious, and Clione, I need you to stay on watch tonight, more cautious than any other time!"
After a few seconds of complete silence, Shachi shook his head
"Ok… too-many-questions!"
Lilou walked to the table with her cup of hot coffee and chuckled at him "We're going to rebuild me!" she laughed out as lounging on a chair.
"Excuse me?!" Uni said with widened eyes.
"Wait! WHY?!" Ikkaku leaned down on her head and asked anxiously.
"So I would be able to accompany you guys into the Grand Line alive." she said casually and took a sip from her coffee.
"Is it that necessary?!" Clione asked from the other side of the room while his hands were frozen in the middle of sharpening his knives.
"Isn't there any other way?" Bepo's eyes moved from Lilou to Law's face as he was laying on the cold ground chewing a fishbone. Law sighed and laid his upper body flat on the table
"Ughh… it pains my ass to say it, but no!"
Shachi nodded once and stood up, walking next to Law he patted the top of his fluffy hat
"I feel you brother, let's go get this pain out of your ass!"
Law growled and slapped his hand "Oh, fuck off!" he then chuckled. Shachi laughed and headed out
"I'll get the operating room ready." he shouted from the corridor.
"THANKS!" Lilou yelled after him and giggled "MAN! I'M EXCITED!"
Clione exhaled loudly and went back to his work
"I don't get you, Lilou-chan. Seriously!"
"Welcome to the club!" Law said with his head still resting on the table. Ikkaku looked at Penguin's gloomy face noticing he was quiet the whole time
"What's wrong with you?"
He shook his head and stood up with the bag of kairoseki handcuffs in his hand
"I have to dive at least 20 times to attach all this kairoseki to the bottom."
"That is what you're worried about right now?!" she almost screamed at his face. Penguin shrugged while walking towards the door
"I've seen her survive more dangerous things than a surgery. If it's decided, then I trust Lilou!" he said seriously. Lilou threw her head backwards looking at him
"Aw! Aren't you the sweetest?"
Penguin blushed and waved his hand for them before leaving the kitchen. Law stretched his back and grabbed his nodachi from the table
"Let's go."
As Lilou was laying on the uncomfortable operating bed and watching the sedatives slowly transferring into her body, her fading mind was only telling her one thing 'This is going to be a survival game.'
I know this one was kind of a calm before the storm chapter but it was needed as preparation for the next chapters.
Thank you so much for your cute reviews, favs, follows or simply reading my story.
Pleaseee write your opinions in reviews, author needs them to get motivated and upload faster and better xoxo loveyalll
