Cursed

Characters: Penguin, Law, Shachi, Bepo. Rating: K+. Warnings: minor injury

When Law had assigned himself the shopping duty, leaving the other three sat on the upper deck of the Polar Tang with half an eye out for trouble, Penguin had expected him to come back with, well, shopping. Things they needed, like food, and of course the medical supplies because Law was more than happy to spend every last penny they had that didn't go towards basic necessities on anything and everything medical related.

He had not expected to see, alongside the bags laden on his skinny wrists, what appeared at first glance to be a very long, black stick. It was almost comical – the thing had to be twice as long as Law was tall – except what was it and why did Law have it (and how much had it cost, because they only had so much money on which to live and couldn't go on continuous pirate raids until Law decided they'd been in hiding long enough).

"Law, please tell me you haven't bought a sword that's too big for any of us except maybe Bepo to use," Shachi groaned, spotting the wrappings of the hilt and recognising the strange fluffy section as a peculiar guard.

"I didn't pay for it," Law said cryptically, clambering up the gangplank awkwardly before letting the bags slide from his wrists onto the ground with a thud. He kept the weapon in his arms, clinging to it as if it would disappear if he laxed his grip at all.

"I know you haven't finished growing yet, but that's impractical for anyone less than seven feet tall," Penguin said bluntly. "So unless it's for Bepo, which I'm doubting because he doesn't need one and you haven't handed it over yet, it's useless."

"She is mine, and I'll be using her," Law said stubbornly. For a moment, Penguin felt as if he was trying to tell a petulant child why he couldn't play with his new toy, before realising that that was, in fact, exactly what he was doing, if you considered a shrimp sixteen year old captain to be a petulant child, and a seven foot sword to be a new toy. All that was missing was the pout, but Law's stubborn glare was making an appropriate substitute.

"Once you're big enough," he retorted, reaching out and snatching the weapon from the shorter teen.

All at once, pain blossomed in his hand, and he almost dropped it with a yelp. That thing was heavy. Law had been carrying it as if it weighed no more than the shorter sword he'd picked up a year or so ago, but Penguin was certain it was at least triple the weight, if not more. More pressing than its weight, though, was the fact that his hand had been almost split in two by the suddenly exposed blade.

And the noise. There was an irritating crying in his ears, tinged with malice and anger that filled Penguin with a sense of unease.

"The hell?" he gasped, letting Shachi take the weapon from him gingerly. The other teen cursed as his own finger was caught on the blade as well, despite the fact that he had very definitely made sure it was fully sheathed before taking it. The noise left Penguin's ears abruptly and Law rushed over to him, taking hold of his bleeding hand before rummaging around in one of the discarded bags for something. Unsurprisingly, he located antiseptic and Penguin gritted his teeth against the unpleasantness. Law finished up with a bandage, before turning to Shachi and holding his hand out expectantly for the weapon.

"This is cursed," Shachi stated blandly, looking down at the sword with a glower. "Likes to bite and won't shut up." Law's quirked eyebrow confused Penguin, but before he could comment Bepo swooped in, clearly tired of watching his human nakama make too much of a fuss over a single weapon, and took the sword from Shachi's hands.

"I don't get it," he said, confused, as Law quickly cleaned and wrapped Shachi's own small nick. "It's just a heavy sword."

"Bepo, it's screaming." Penguin frowned up at the Mink, wondering how the hell the Mink was missing the commotion. Bepo tilted his head to the side and pulled the sheathed blade to his ear, listening intently before shaking his head.

"No it isn't," he said.

"She likes to talk," Law interrupted, smoothly reclaiming the sword from Bepo as if it didn't weigh far more than any sword had a right to and seemingly unconcerned by the accompanying noises. "Her name is Kikoku."

Penguin knew a lost battle when he saw one, but he sent the sword a glower anyway.

"She's too big for you at the moment," he tried one last time, hoping that Law would see common sense and feeling stupid applying a pronoun to what was supposed to be an inanimate object. "At least wait until you've grown a bit before you start flailing her around, okay?" He cradled his bloody hand to his chest protectively, glad that Law had treated it before he'd got a good look at it. He had a horrid suspicion that if he'd been cut much deeper he'd have lost the use of a couple of fingers.

"You don't flail swords, Penguin," Law said disapprovingly, reverting back to the grip he'd originally had on the sword. "Now get those supplies away. I want to leave this island."

Deciding that the more distance there was between him and the cursed sword that seemed to have it in for him the better (why was he the only one that had nearly lost a hand? Shachi's injury was minor at best and the sword hadn't bitten Law or Bepo at all), Penguin obeyed, Shachi and Bepo right behind him.

To his relief, it was only a couple of days before Law finally admitted that Kikoku was too big for him and reverted back to his smaller sword for fighting. However, Kikoku was never thrown out, and Penguin dreaded the day the demonic sword would be picked up once again.

Law liked to talk to it (her?) sometimes, holding entire conversations as if she was replying, and if that wasn't freaky, Penguin wasn't entirely sure what was.

People have been asking for a Kikoku chapter (and I've intended to do one since the very start but I could never find a scenario I was happy with), so here we are at last! I'd love to know more about her beyond the fact that she's a named and cursed blade but has no rank, but for now there are a couple of headcanons sneaking in. Law wields her way too easily for her size, so headcanon number one is that as she's his cursed sword, she feels light to him (and only him!).

Number two is based around her name "demon's wail" and what little we know of Sandai Kisetsu being seemingly sentient - she likes to scream. However, the volume of her screaming is dependant on the relative bloodlust/lust for vengeance exhibited by the person holding her, based on how much she needs to influence them to sate her own desires. Law just gets a quiet chatter, while Shachi and Penguin get a less bearable volume. Bepo, based on theories about Sulong, gets total silence. He's also strong enough not to be bothered by her weight, which we've seen in canon (likewise, neither Luffy or Zoro seem bothered by Kikoku in Dressrosa, but Zoro has a cursed sword of his own and Luffy's got a knack for shutting out irritating unnecessary things - I'm sure 'screaming swords' is one of them). Conversely, if someone pure and innocent (like Chopper) got hold of her, the screaming would be deafening and very quickly insanity-inducing.

Thanks for reading!
Tsari