HS: It's hard for any of these guys to keep their thoughts to themselves – or hands, for that matter lol This chapter reveals more of the spider. I'm plowing through this story with updated edits and revealing stuff I hadn't posted yet, so it's coming along pretty well. :D

Rainbow D. Jay: You're right! Now for Law to remember – or Zoro, for remembering he actually holds the key!

Part Eight:

Your Past Defines Who You Are

Luffy looked back at Ussop with concern. The man was sitting in such a hunched position that it looked wholly uncomfortable – being that he was the only one in the back seat. What they couldn't see was that Sanji and Zoro were squishing against each other on one door, with Law and Brook squished against the other. Tony sat on Zoro's lap with a sullen frown. Law was staring out the window with a stunned look, clearly dazzled by the modern world. Outside of the hospital, he seemed to have lost a glow that none of them had noticed before – his clothes were old-fashioned and well worn, his features haggard. Like Brook, he was out of date.

"You okay, Ussop?" Luffy asked tentatively as Franky took a turn back to their complex. It had was near evening, time having slipped by the ghosts' recognition without mercy. They were riding in silence at Ussop's request, so that he may hear the ghosts' voices without too much trouble. "That's a funny spot you got there."

"It is crowded back here," Ussop snarled. "Instead of losing their numbers, they grew in numbers."

"Introduce yourself, doctor," Brook encouraged Law, who looked up with a start at being addressed. "This is Ussop, that's Luffy and that's Franky."

"BROOK!" Ussop howled. "STOP BRINGING HOME MORE GHOSTS!"

"I know these morons by sight," Law snapped at Brook, returning his attention out the window as a car with loud music caught his attention. "What's that sound?"

"Oh, that is music," Brook answered lightly. "I believe that a lovely hit by Ariana Gra – "

"What sort of living society is this where advanced technology allows for such horrid sounds? It sounds like demons calling out from Hell."

"This doctor speaks another language," Ussop muttered bitterly, causing Sanji and Zoro to react with a start. "German, I think. Very angry, rapid-fire German – like the other foreigner. I have no idea what he is saying but he sounds very pissed off."

Law wore a startled expression upon hearing this. It looked as if he'd suddenly remembered he was a foreigner himself. But he exhaled noisily. "This was not the city I knew…where are the horses? The wagons?"

"He's inquiring about horses and wagons," Brook said helpfully. "Definitely not from your space of time, my fellow hunters."

"When did you die, doc?" Ussop asked with a suffering sigh.

Law looked at him with a scowl, pulling his jackets over his chest with a modest action. "That shit's personal."

Brook relayed the answer. Ussop rolled his eyes. "This is the infamous doc they've been blabbering about, and he's not a polite person."

Law looked at the others with an affronted expression. "Have you been talking shit about me all this time?"

"Enough from you and your haughty attitude, Final Countdown," Sanji snapped, reaching out to push his face back. Zoro wore a puzzled expression at the reference. "Ussop - it took you long enough to come get us. We were this close to dying again!"

"Look," Ussop snapped back, "I heard what I heard! It was because of Luffy capturing what the guy actually was that spurred some spirit in me to actually go out and see if you were successful! To know that this – thing – is some demon in disguise - ! Of course I had some hesitation!"

"He wasn't even that scary," Sanji muttered while Zoro snorted.

"Check your tightie-whities for the real answer," he retorted, Sanji looking at him in outrage.

"Sanji, did you scary pee?" Tony asked with concern, then laughed uproariously.

"The bottom door leads to limbo, doc," Brook whispered to Law. "Where souls await reassigning."

"I'll have to submit a complaint about that whiny dapper that interrupted my routine," Law muttered bitterly of Penguin. "It's because of him that I was forced into this mess."

"He saved your miserable after-life!" Zoro snapped at him.

Law kicked the seat in front of him, then snarled as Franky lurched forward with a gasp. The Tundra gave a swerve that caused more than one head to whip about. "It's so small in here! I cannot breathe or stretch!"

"He's a tall man," Brook whispered to Ussop.

"Did someone just kick me?" Franky asked, white in the face. Law kicked him again, then leaned forward to look at the others.

"Pulling me away from my job screams sabotage!" he snapped, Ussop drawing back from his angry voice. Sanji and Zoro were doing the same, Sanji being pushed out the window. He reached back and clasped onto the orange and gray flannel the other man wore. "If I am away from it, I cannot send souls on their way! They'll foul up the hospital with their aimless presence. There is only a certain number of us that can do this job!"

"They're back to screaming at each other," Ussop said wearily, wiping his hands down his face. "I have no idea what he's saying, but it sounds like murder to me."

Luffy chuckled. "Everyone that feels passionate about a subject sounds scary to you, Ussop."

"Doc's freaking out because he's unhealthily obsessed with his job!" Sanji retorted. "He's not very grateful."

"Grateful for what?" Ussop managed to eke out as politely as he could.

"The spider was trying to keep him in the hospital! Tony found his name, lost his name, but says the doc and the spider are very connected. Plus, the guy addressed doc here as someone he knows. Law," Sanji cut himself off from Ussop to lean across Zoro and Ussop to address the scowling man, "who was that guy?"

"I don't know him," Law insisted. "We've never interacted before."

"He said he'd already killed you once," Zoro said gravely. "You can't remember your own death – how can you forget your own killer?"

"Definitely German," Ussop mumbled thoughtfully to himself.

"I don't remember taking that as a language course," Franky said with a sigh, Luffy rifling through his phone.

"I have no idea what he's saying, but Sanji's annoying voice is giving me the gist of things."

"Annoying?" Sanji cried in outrage.

Law furrowed his brow with curiosity. "I fell ill with the rest of them…but that's not how I died."

"He said a bunch of them were sick, but he didn't die of that," Sanji relayed to Ussop. "He's been dead for so long he doesn't remember details."

"This area was once wiped out by smallpox," Ussop offered. "We did the cemetery once, and most of them were smallpox victims from a settlement some miles away."

"I discovered something that made me want to stay," Law said. He continued to look puzzled. He suddenly patted at all of his pockets, then spilled out of the car once Franky parked. The ghosts fell out on their own as Ussop listened to the sudden silence. Once he recognized that their shouts were coming from outside the vehicle, he heaved a massive sigh. Franky and Luffy looked back at him, clearly unable to hear the conversation. Ussop hastily caught them up as he opened the back door and climbed out.

While Ussop spoke to Luffy and Franky, Law said, "What an ugly living area. Smells like shit everywhere I turn. Worse than what it originally was. At least it's not spilling out into the streets."

"Wait until you get inside," Zoro said.

"Both foreigners are upset at something," Ussop relayed gravely. "Both of them sound like they want to kill someone."

Law looked to Brook as they all walked as a large group towards the living's apartment. "Why did you do this? I have a job to do."

"That man had said he'd killed you once," Brook said gently, as Tony raced with cheer alongside Ussop, clearly happy he wasn't going to heaven any time soon. "And Tony already confessed to finding your real name but losing it. The spider mentioned that if you were to remember your name, something bad will happen. Most likely to him so he's very eager to make sure you remain in the dark of your true self. I think it's important that we rescue you until we can fix the situation."

Law sighed noisily, hands in his jacket pockets. "I don't even know that man. I've been so focused on my routine that I've lost all memories of him. You say he's my killer? Fuck if I remember that event. Having this disruption is causing me intense anxiety. What if I end up killing you all out of agitation?"

"Try it," Sanji snapped at him, "and Tony and I will force you to remember fear like you've never remembered it before!"

"Yeah," Law agreed skeptically, reaching out to poke at his shoulder pads, "that frightens me."

"ARGH!"

"Enough!" Ussop snapped back at them, causing one woman to look up from her car keys. Ignoring her puzzled look, he strode on to say, "I can't stand to hear you guys all talking at once! What is your ultimate goal, now? First it was to find the kid, then his name, then return him to the hospital – but now all of you guys are here, so what's next?"

"You there," Law said, reaching out to poke Franky's arm and having him look around with a startled regard. "What is wrong with your hair? Is it acceptable for men to look like this, now? Men are allowed to wear crop top shirts?"

"Hey, they were acceptable in my time," Sanji said with a shrug at Franky's outfit – a cut muscle shirt that was sheered high to reveal surprisingly defined abs. Ussop mumbled this conversation to him, causing Franky to burst into a wide grin.

"My dudes, we can dress however we want!" he exclaimed proudly, causing Law to cringe away from him.

"You're so easily distracted!" Zoro snapped at Law. "Enough with your asinine curiosities! We need to figure out what to do with that thing and get Tony to the light."

Law looked back at him with a frown. He then looked at Tony, who tried to hide behind Brook as they all tromped up the stairway. "He's not dead," Law then insisted with a puzzled look. "There is no indicator on him."

"But we're all dead, that's why we are doing this," Sanji stated with gritted teeth.

"We're all dead, yes, that's obvious." Law paused, looking him over. He then gave a tired scowl. "'tch. I can't get over that feathered hair to take you seriously..."

"FOCUS! Tony is just like us," Sanji insisted, gesturing at the boy, "otherwise, how are we seeing him?"

"All of us are given that unsightly glow of a dead person," Law said as they all tromped into the apartment. He was focused on examining his newest surroundings, hands tucked into his pockets. "Good God, it's a good thing I lost my sense of smell when I died…look at all of this trash…"

"And Tony doesn't have it?" Brook asked, the four of them looking at the boy with renewed interest. He sat down on the couch as Luffy and Franky settled in the kitchen, Ussop standing close by to hear what was being said. Zoro tried to be helpful by relaying the conversation to him, but Ussop could not understand a word he was saying.

Tony tucked his hands between his knees, looking up at them anxiously.

"No," Law commented, reaching out and touching his forehead, much to Tony's discomfort. "He's in-between. Perhaps he's brain dead, but I can't assess him very well outside of the hospital. I lost most of my precious powers once you lot kidnapped me."

"You mean," Zoro snarled at Law, "you could have learned this in the hospital? Before wasting our time insulting us?"

Law towered over him, giving his height extra oomph by taking a few inches off the floor. Sanji scowled at this, trying to perform the same method. Tony had to copy him, both of them stretching as far as they could in an effort to leave the floor. Brook demonstrated his own useful float, causing them to snarl at him.

"If you'll use what's left of your brain, cherry blossoms, it was you dragging me around corners with a pathetic scary story to tell."

Zoro shrugged. "Frankly, I, too, am caught up in a mess that didn't involve my hands but now that I am here, there's no point crying about it."

"What if we're not really dead…?" Sanji questioned, knowing the answer before Law looked at him with exasperation. Sanji rolled his eyes, sitting down with a flounce on the nearby La-Z-Boy chair. "Whatever, I don't want to hear it…"

"The fact that he's able to wander this world while still alive in the previous one, well…it might be that he's being forcefully sustained while his spirit has given up," Law continued with a puzzled look, hands sliding back into his jacket pockets. Franky turned on the television set, distracting him from his assessment while a loud action flick popped up. Law ended up venturing towards it with an awed expression while the graphics seemed to pop from the television, Tony looking up at the others with a guilty expression.

"I honestly don't know," he insisted, "but…everything that I told you so far was true."

"Tony," Sanji warned. "You've said so many things so far that turned out to be lies – "

"I did lie a lot! But I didn't lie about the basement. I was down there," Tony insisted. "And I did find Law's name, but I can't remember what it looked like or how to say it! The spider was very awful about what he was saying – he bragged about knowing all of you. That's how I knew of all of you."

"Maybe this thing has access to death records," Ussop said, furrowing his brow as Luffy sat nearby with a recorder, watching him with concern. "Demons are very knowledgeable about other people without us knowing how. If we can find the doc's true name – "

Sanji rose from the chair with a pop, jerking Law's jacket open once more, the doctor reacting with a startled cry. "Donquixote is the name on one of his tags," Sanji stated to Ussop, "and Law is his first name. He insists that Donquixote isn't his name."

"That's not my name," Law insisted, covering himself up again. His eyes drifted up and away from them all of a sudden, the ghosts reacting with a start to his avert of attention. They were prepared to run, but as Law strode down the hall, Sanji hurried after him, dragging him back by his jacket. With a huff Law resettled himself, straightening his jacket. "Sorry. Old habits. There is a woman next door with a dying wish."

"I'll console her!" Sanji cried, hurrying off in that direction.

Zoro snatched Law's arm once he started moving again, forcing him to stay focused. "Your last name isn't Donquixote?"

"No," Law insisted impatiently. "That's the last name of…"

He trailed off, clearly looking lost. Zoro indicated his own flannel, then pointed at him. "Why don't you look at your thingy?"

Law then patted his pockets for his notebook. Flipping through a few pages, he found the one he was looking for. "Aha! Donquixote…"

"How do you spell that?" Ussop asked, gesturing for a pen that Franky supplied to him. Brook helped him out. "I can give this to Sabo – he gets off work in a few hours, he can locate the history behind it."

"He was a supplier to the region," Law continued over him with a thoughtful tone. "Brought the hospital basic supplies from the east, and helped with the efforts in settling settler affairs..."

He trailed off, looking to the ceiling with a thoughtful expression. He looked down to his notebook, straining to remember these details. As he stood there, the long ago pencil scribblings he'd made began to reappear. His own handwriting gave him a patient's symptoms and a treatment suggestion he'd made on his own. Remembering that particular patient caused him to remember the day he stood at a dying man's bedside, watching his life slowly leave him.

It was a cold winter's morning, and he'd pulled on an extra jacket. The hospital floor was full of patients that were in the throes of their life span, attended to by desperate personnel who'd given up hope in success. Despite the fire crackling at the nearby fireplace, Law could see his breath as his cold fingers wrote down the man's dying request.

'Inform the captain of the blankets,' his handwriting told him. The last word was underlined twice. 'Smallpox.'

Law remembered thinking how hostile it was that one man could be this calculating, this cruel to other human beings. As he scanned the dying, he saw one nurse pulling blankets from their bodies and replacing them with others.

"This man," he said aloud, still lost in the memory, "supplied used blankets from the hospital to those living outside of the settlement. To…further allow the genocide of others so that settlers could take over."

Brook swallowed tightly while the others looked uncomfortable. Leaning over to Ussop, Brook whispered what Law had told him while the doctor looked haggard with the memory. Sanji reappeared, whistling. Once he saw that there was a heavy scene in place, he quietly made his way to Zoro's side.

Ussop furrowed his brow. "Nothing of that was mentioned during our run at the cemetery, only that a lot of people died because of the disease."

Law looked at him with a frown. "If you are looking for a demon, then he would be capable of being that sort of despicable creature. I don't know how I wound up with this nametag – I wasn't related to him in any way. But I imagine that if he kept my real name from me, I'm going to assume that it wasn't to tell on him for his criminalities."

"That's a long ago crime," Zoro muttered as Brook relayed this to Ussop, who continued to wear an uncomfortable expression. Luffy was rewinding and replaying the conversation, but he had only wisps of Law speaking in fluid German, the occasional whisper from the others fueling him with only their presence and not their subject. He gave a low growl of frustration. "But certainly someone capable of being that evil would continue to being evil."

"I suppose it wouldn't do any good now," Law said awkwardly. "Considering how it's now only a part of the past. But old habits die hard. Releasing his name might either harm him or me."

"Maybe learning his true name might release him as the spider and allow you to send him to Hell," Sanji suggested. He lit up. "That's Tony's purpose! This is why he wasn't able to move on – his purpose was to help you get this guy into that bottom door!"

"But I also want to get him into that bottom door," Law stated, looking at Brook hotly. His hands seemed to shake as they lifted from his pockets. "I want to get him into that bottom doorway so bad - !"

Brook shrieked with horror.

"Well, and us?" Sanji asked, waving an arm to pull Law's attention his way. Law reluctantly looked at him. "Zoro and I are meant for the light too, right?"

"You mongrels died outside, I don't care what happens to you."

Sanji reached for him with a snarl, Zoro knocking his hands off course.

"Focus here, David Bowie," he commanded, Ussop catching the name with a lift of his eyebrows. "If these are all the pieces of the puzzle, then it's time to put the puzzle together. And clearly, we're the ones to do so. His reign of terror ends here. That's why we were put together."

"You really think so, Zoro?" Tony asked him, lighting up with relief. He bounced on the seat. "Then it would make so much sense! If it's correct that we don't have a sense of time, then my spirit might have decided to wander when the rest of me was kept alive! If he can't see where I'm supposed to go, then my body hasn't died yet – the rest of me is still in that hospital! Maybe on a floor or tower Law hasn't been."

"So then this means you know your full name," Zoro said gently.

Tony sighed. "I do. But…that's not important. What's important is finding this guy's real name! I had it, but because I obviously have nowhere to put it, I must've lost it somewhere. So we need to travel backward – "

"There's no time for that," Sanji said. "This Sabo guy can do the research on this Donquixote guy and Law can then remember his name."

"But if doc can't remember his own name," Zoro said slowly, "it might not matter. What matters is that this spider did something very wrong in the past, tried to cover it up and now that he can be put away, he's putting effort into keeping us silent about it. It's because of Tony that this was able to happen. So try treating him with a little more respect, Steve Urkel."

Law was aware that Zoro was bad mouthing him, but he had no idea who Steve Urkel was. He looked down at Tony with a scowl as the kid beamed up at him. Law's upper lip curled with disdain. "At the end of it, I'll allow him a little freedom in going out the way he wants. I can help him, of course, but for a small fee – "

"Gah! You're so mean! I hate doctors because they let me die!"

Law lit up with what could only be described as a horrific delight. "I'll let you die, little boy. I'm good at that."

Tony winced. "I mean, not you – ugh, I hate you…"

"Stop threatening him," Zoro growled, standing up to insert himself between them.

"What are you going to do about it, besides make me mad when you drip your gross fluids on me?"

Sanji pushed against them to separate them, looking at Tony sternly.

"See what happens when you're nothing but a liar? If you don't want to wind up like the rest of us, then you'll start straightening up and telling us the gosh darn truth! No more shitty lies or omitting certain details!"

Tony rolled his eyes and gave the biggest sigh he could give. "God…whatever!"

Brook wore an understanding smile as he watched them all interact. He realized why Tony wasn't telling most truths – the boy had repeatedly expressed how long he had been sick, and how much fun he wanted to have now that he was a ghost. He was deliberately withholding information from the group to have as much fun as possible before moving on. While some of the lies weren't directly hurtful, they did extend the time Tony had with the others as they searched for clues.

But Brook believed Tony when the boy mentioned he'd had and lost Law's real name. That expression on his face was a truth.

Ussop listened to the constant flow of voices – he understood that the doctor was agitating them with what sounded like insults; Zoro spoke up harshly for Tony, who sounded, frankly, like a brat. Ussop understood a little of his circumstances, but as a party looking in, he could only reach a judgement he was comfortable with. It seemed outlandish that a group of ghosts with no connection to each other could team up in such a way to out what sounded like a demonic presence haunting the hospital; but all of them sounded as if they were men his age that could have been his friends (if they were alive). In a way, he felt for them; in another, he felt detached because he could only listen to their conversation and aid only when they needed him. Like an accessory.

He still felt afraid – hearing them was one thing, but possibly seeing them would be another. He absolutely did not want to see the spider – that man had creeped him out just enough to leave him with chills at the memory.

: :

When Sabo came home with takeout, both the living and the dead gathered in the living room while he set up his laptop and started typing out names.

"Donquixote," Sabo repeated carefully, typing it into the search bar. After several moments, the face of the man they'd seen the other night popped up in an old photograph. The living reacted with horror and excitement while the dead squirmed uncomfortably.

"That's him," Law murmured thoughtfully over Sabo's shoulder. He reached out and pressed the Enter key to further the search, Sabo leaping out of his chair with fright as his screen changed. Once the site loaded, they were treated to a brief history on Doflamingo Donquixote's infamous supply runs to the area in early stages of settling. "They don't have very many details on him. This is basic information."

"Either the photograph makes him look frightening, or he was just an evil person inside and out," Brook mumbled. "Because that looks like a post-mortem photograph."

"What's that?" Sanji asked.

"A photo taken after they were dead," Ussop answered him absently, shivering.

"They wouldn't," Law said, pushing Enter again and getting only the loading results of the city's history. "Because he didn't die."

"He said he's still alive," Brook told Ussop.

"He's still alive," Ussop told Sabo, who resettled with a discomforted expression.

"I can check with my friend at the city archives," Sabo said slowly, returning to the original search page. He drew out his email. "But that wouldn't make any sense to haunt us if he wasn't actually dead."

"When I was alive, he wasn't dead," Law clarified.

"Then how did you die?" Zoro asked him.

"I don't know."

"Body search him," Sanji said flippantly, folding his arms over his chest as he reached out and touched Sabo's computer. He was frustrated when he couldn't make any contact with it. "I barely had a chance with these things! I can't remember how if I don't think I didn't do it!"

"I can!" Tony cried, slapping at the keyboard. "Aww, why can't I touch things? Zoro, can you teach me?"

Law looked down at himself, patting his own chest and stomach with searching hands. He turned away from them as Brook gently guided Sanji and Tony away from Sabo's laptop, chiding them for their overeager hands. Unbuttoning his shirt, Law saw the bullet wounds that bore gaping holes in his chest and stomach. Shocked to see his own body covered in mortal wounds that didn't leave a trace outside the front of his clothes, Law counted seven holes. Zoro leaned over with a curious look, able to see through the space to Law's faded shirt. He could see that the back of Law's shirt was stained in blood easily covered with his other jacket.

Law looked up, stricken. The memory of Doflamingo laughing as he shot him came back to him in violent detail – the cold of the winter night, the bite of the icy wind, Doflamingo's deranged voice carrying in the silence between hospital and town. Now that he remembered the cold, he couldn't help but shiver in response.

For just a brief moment, he felt the tinges of fear he'd felt knowing he was a dead man. It left him with a heavy feeling that felt like slow suffocation.

'Who are you to say anything at all?' Doflamingo had asked him. 'Nobody! No one will remember your name!'

Law exhaled harshly, covering himself up. Now that he remembered, his fingertips blackened from frostbite, hands taking on the color of a frozen corpse. The other ghosts caught sight of this as he lost his 'normal' appearance, Tony looking thoroughly horrified.

"Even your lips are blue," Brook observed, poking at Law's face.

"You're a human popsicle," Sanji said with disgust.

Law slapped Brook's hand away.

"I was murdered," he said tightly, buttoning his shirt back up. "Because he knew that I knew of his evil doings. There were two of us that did – one had died already from intentional small pox infestation and I had received the information from him. Because of his position, Doflamingo couldn't allow anyone to know of his wrong deeds. He'd hoped to keep that by stealing my name."

"Then what is it?" Zoro asked, furrowing his brow.

Law was still at a loss, thinking hard about his own history but seeing only what was presented to him at the moment. His violent death, his routine as a doctor – the notebook with the things he'd remembered writing that day. He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know."

Tony scrunched his face up as Sabo spoke to the others, Ussop focusing on the conversation outside of the ghosts' circle. "If only I'd put it in a safer place, but I have no pockets!"

After fixing his shirt back into his pants and adjusting his suspenders, Law slowly sat on the couch arm rest nearby, looking unsettled. "How is it that something that monstrous can have this much memory but none of us are allotted the same?"

"Like you said," Sanji mumbled, lighting up a cigarette, "ghosts are only focused on the last day of our deaths if we ignore the light. So why did you ignore the light?"

Law looked at him with a frown. After the multiple blasts of gunfire died away, Doflamingo's maniacal laughter fading off into the distance, Law remembered looking up at the snowy night sky. The last thing on his mind were the patients in the hospital – who would care for them? Who would take over when he was gone? With those flitting memories, it seemed that Doflamingo's face loomed over him for a long time. When Law had re-opened his eyes, he was still looking over the patients he'd cared for – only there seemed to be a constant stream of them. A never ending stream that demanded his attention until the day he ran into the pair setting opposite him, looking at him with similar dumb expressions.

He scoffed at the pair. "Just looking at your faces ruins every timeline I could have had. That ugly hair and missing nose haunts any dream I might have had in the afterlife."

Sanji rose from his position with a roar while Zoro looked insulted. Tony snickered.

"I never saw it," Law answered Sanji's question. "I only remembered my patients."

"Then who taught you your ridiculous routine?" Sanji asked impatiently.

"Who taught you to open the doors?" Zoro added. "Move things? Modern medicine?"

Law struggled to think while Brook leaned over Ussop's head to catch him up on the discussion. Ussop looked startled as he relayed the conversation to the others, Sabo hastily taking more notes. After awhile, Law shook his head. "I don't know. It's been too long since then and now. All I know is that I'm a doctor that cares for my patients and there never seems to be an end to them."

"Trah," Tony muttered, face scrunching with concentration. "Tra-c-tor. Trash…Tra…Trac – no, Traff…Travis Barker. No…Traffle…mmm…waffles…"

"Waffles does sound good," Ussop mumbled, Luffy's stomach gurgling noisily at that moment. "Dinner break!"

"We just had dinner," Sabo reminded them impatiently. "I brought home a pizza."

"It wasn't enough," Franky admitted. "Waffles does sound good."

"We just ate!"

"I can eat again!" Luffy exclaimed. "Let's go get some!"

"I would love some waffles," Ussop said.

"We're going out to eat!" Brook cried out with joy.

"NO, you all are staying put!" Ussop snapped, causing Sanji and Zoro to jolt with the harshness of his voice. "I want to enjoy my food and not have you guys bothering me while I eat!"

Zoro put a finger to his lips, signaling to the others to remain quiet. Ussop scowled around the area, looking for any sign of them while the others made to get ready to go. "I mean it!" he stressed. "I don't want you guys following us!"

: :

The living sat at one booth while the dead occupied another. They sat stiffly facing each other, the sounds of a top twenty satellite station playing overhead with minimal occupation allowing gentle sounds of conversation around them. While most of them had been a patron of a restaurant before, they could not remember the smells nor the taste of food. Sanji was startled to realize this himself – he only had his beef stew and French bread on his mind. It was frustrating looking at a plate full of things he knew he'd had a hand in before, but not remember the taste or texture of it.

Tony pouted, fist supporting his hairless head.

"I wish I could have those, too," he muttered, glaring bitterly at the plates the living had ordered. "I know I liked them…"

"Keep your voices down," Brook advised. "Ussop can hear us, but our voices will be muffled amongst all this noise. Sanji, voice at whisper volume only."

"You can't silence me!" Sanji hissed at him, hunkering over the table. "I'm outraged! Look at this crap they're eating – it's only crap! What has food come to since I've been gone?"

"Nothing has mold or meal worms in it," Law said wondrously.

"I miss gyudon bowls," Zoro muttered sullenly.

"Look at their waitress," Brook said with a whistle. "It should be a crime to have so many curves at once!"

"A beauty carved by the hand of God!" Sanji added on a high whisper, he and Brook leaning far over to watch her walk away. Zoro kicked him out of the booth while Law's head perked up, looking over at a table of three older men. He rose off the bench with a determined expression, Brook snatching his coat while Tony glared at the living once more.

"Outside of the hospital is only murder," Brook advised, Law sitting with a heavy sigh.

"So," Zoro asked slowly, "with your eyes all frozen, do you only see in ice?"

"I wish I lost my vision – that floppy hair of yours makes my bullet wounds ache."

"I wish I remembered what soda tasted like," Tony whined over Law's response. "And syrup – I couldn't have any of that."

"We should look for your body," Sanji said after picking himself up. "If it's still alive, we can find it."

"NO MORE MISSIONS," Zoro snarled at him. "We're overloaded as it is!"

"Brook, how did you help these guys defeat the demon?" Sanji then asked the skeleton.

"By finding his body," Brook answered. "It was buried in the swamp near the restaurant. Once we found a priest to bless the body, the demon released his victims and was dragged down to hell by the hands that we saw Law communicating with."

"They're only people," Law said. "They're other people from different timelines. I don't know if they're relatives passed on or whomever, because I don't talk to any of them. I didn't need to."

"Then we find Doflamingo's body," Sanji said with determination, clenching a fist.

"How are you still smoking that one cigarette?" Tony asked. "Can I try? I'm dead already, so it shouldn't be a problem."

"Oh, you're right," Sanji said, removing his cigarette to give him, Tony lighting up with delight. Law reached out and crushed the thing in his hand, giving them murderous expressions.

"Be a good example, what is wrong with you?" Zoro hissed at Sanji, who looked affronted.

"To find Doflamingo, I need my name to remember more of him," Law stated impatiently as he dropped the remains of Sanji's cigarette to the table. "We don't have my name because the hairless monkey here lost it."

Tony groaned noisily. "I said I was sorry!"

Zoro blinked thoughtfully as he fiddled with a syrup jar that rattled on the table. Ussop's head jerked in that direction, all of them freezing for a few moments. Once his attention was diverted back to his food, Zoro clumsily slid the jar back to the rack, Ussop looking once more in their direction. Sanji slapped the man over the head.

"Think Tony," Zoro insisted on a whisper, rubbing what was left of his skull. "When you found it, what was it written on? Was it written on a wall? Did you have to pull it down? Pick it up?"

Tony thought hard, pursing his dry, cracked lips. "I saw it because it was a bright color on the…floor. It was on the floor in the basement, near the boilers."

Law stilled, then said, "The boilers – on the left side of the building?"

"I guess, I don't know…but I saw it and picked it up. I remembered thinking, What's this doing here? And that's when Doflamingo called my name. So I put it somewhere, I just can't remember where!"

All of them looked him over once more, giving expressions of frustration.

"Maybe you put it back," Brook suggested.

"I didn't! Because it was weird that it was so bright!" Tony insisted. "I know I kept it because it felt like something out of a video game! I found a treasure, I'm going to need it for later…"

"So, was it a piece of paper?" Sanji asked. "Was it from a book? A notebook? Something that looked like it was from that little thing Law carries with him?"

Tony concentrated on the question, then lit up. "Yes! It was on a small sheet of paper that felt weird! Folded in half. It had blood on it."

Law rubbed at one of his bullet wounds with discomfort. His notebook was tucked in a nearby pocket closest to one of them. He then looked at the 'Donquixote' nametag on his jacket, giving it a frustrated look. He unhooked it from his outside jacket, setting it on the table. While the living laughed and held conversations around them, the group of the dead stared at the nametag with various expressions.

Zoro sighed as he leaned back against the booth, shoving his hands into his pockets. He felt the slip of paper in there and pulled it out with a curious frown. Unfolding the blood-splattered piece of paper, he furrowed his brow to concentrate on the word.

"Trafalgar," he said slowly, puzzled as to why he had it. He showed the others. "This name would have killed me trying to say it when I was alive."

Tony lit up while Law whipped his head around with a shocked expression. He snatched it from Zoro's hand, repeating it to himself. Memory after memory hit him as his own identity returned to him with a violent heat that made his bullet wounds pulse with a renewed gush of strength that spilled against the booth seat. Brook tried in vain to avoid the blood spill that coated the seat between them while Zoro sat dumbly, trying to remember why he had it in the first place.

The boy laughed with delight. "Zoro! You had it all this time?"

"ZORO! You idiot!" Sanji shouted at him, rising with ire from the booth.

"I had no idea I even had it!" Zoro roared back at him, facing him. "How did it get in there? Someone put it in there!"

"No one in their right mind wants their hands in your goddamn pockets!"

Zoro flailed about helplessly, looking at all of them with shock as he patted his own pockets once more, looking for more secrets.

Ussop slammed his hands on the table, rising from his seat with a frustrated snarl as Sabo, Luffy, and Franky looked at him with alarm. Sanji hastily retook his seat, covering his mouth with both hands while Zoro looked off into another direction with a nonchalant expression. Tony giggled at the reactions happening around him, having too much fun to feel any guilt. Monitors began to peek out from the walls and floor, slowing rising with the sound of cracking glass following them.

"YOU DARN GHOSTS!" Ussop howled, whirling to face their direction while everyone in their area looked at him with a start. "I told you not to follow me here! I just wanted to enjoy my meal in peace and quiet and why are you here?"

"We're so sorry," Brook whispered apologetically as he watched the monitors closest to them turn in their direction.

"You are NOT sorry!" Ussop stomped the floor with a foot as Sabo whispered urgently for him to calm down. The other diners around them looked around nervously, some drawing out their phones as he continued to have a meltdown.

"Sanji, you got us in trouble," Tony hissed at him, pushing up against Brook upon seeing the monitors float towards them.

"Never mind peace and quiet," Sanji demanded, hurrying over to Ussop's side so that he could speak clearly to him before the monitors could remove them. "Zoro had the name hiding in his pants. The doc's name is Traflagar Law, and his killer is named Doflamingo Donquixote. Now that we have the doc's real name, we can find the body of the spider and get rid of him. You want that? THEN you can have peace and quiet."

"I want to find your body and destroy it!" Ussop hissed at him.

Before Sanji could say anything else, the ghosts found themselves within the center of a parking lot blocks away from the restaurant, in a completely foreign area to them. They looked around themselves with mystification, feeling the instinctive pull at their memory to return to something only they could see. Brook struggled to keep a clear mind, indicating that they all grab ahold of someone before they could wander off.

"Focus," he hissed. He noticed that Law was unclenching his fist after accepting the change of surroundings, seeing him look at his own name. The others ended up focusing on Brook's words, following the order with strained expressions. "Focus on the doctor."

"I know where his body is," Law said, lighting up with a somewhat devilish expression, tucking his real name back into his notebook and sliding that into his pocket. Sanji reached out and wrapped his hand into the material of his jacket, Zoro clinging to him with Tony's hand in the other. "That fucking bastard – I had already killed him once, I'll do it again."

Before they knew it, all of them were standing inside the hospital's ER.