Endurance

Characters: Law. Rating: K. Warnings: None

It had taken Law an embarrassingly long time to realise that using his new abilities drained his stamina. He'd noticed the oncoming exhaustion, of course, but as he was stuck in the thrall of White Lead Poisoning for much of the early days, he'd simply assumed it to be more of the same. There hadn't been much of a pattern to the White Lead induced weakness, so it had been easy for the Ope Ope no Mi's drawback to hide amongst it.

Having been surrounded by Devil Fruit users for much of the past three years, Law had never known that they had any drawbacks beyond the well-known loss of ability to swim. Doflamingo had never so much as broken into sweat, and even Baby 5 had plenty of stamina to spare after her various transformations. Of course, a fire or sand logia would logically be disadvantaged against water, but there was no logical detriment to operations.

Even after the worst of the White Lead had passed and his body began the long road to recovery, Law failed to realise that the exhaustion was a physical result of using his abilities. Mentally, the control needed was outstanding, so Law instead attributed it to the mental strain.

Takt, the first ability he found a name for (and a use outside of surgery), was difficult. Moving something with his fruit was a far cry from simply doing it with his hands. What his body catalogued with ease – weight, strength required – the Ope Ope no Mi demanded conscious recognition. Lifting a coin with his fingers was simple. Reach, hold, move. His body automatically filled in the rest of the steps, leaving his conscious mind free to focus on other things. Lifting a coin with the Ope Ope no Mi was nothing of the sort.

There was no reach. That was covered by the span of his Room, whatever size that had been. Nor was there hold. It didn't work by invisible hands doing all of the work. There was only move. Move began with the identification of the object, analysing its weight and the forces that would be needed to shift it. Then came the application of the forces, or rather mimicking the application of the forces, because there was no such thing in the Room. It was, quite simply, just Law and his mind.

Moving things with your mind was nothing like people thought it was. He couldn't just tell it to go somewhere and it would obey. He had to push it, working out how much pressure to apply so that it moved, but didn't go too fast. He also had to guide it, to make sure it went where he wanted it, and that meant manipulating the forces perfectly. Time, trial and error taught him that pointing with his fingers helped him to focus, although his paranoia compelled him to train without the crutch, because he knew what Doflamingo could do.

Doflamingo could take his movement away from him, stealing control of his limbs until all he had left was his mind, imprisoned inside a body that wouldn't obey him. Having a weapon he only needed his mind to use was the only way to counter the strings, so he persevered, assuming that the mental strain was the reason for his exhaustion.

With that assumption, it was no wonder it took Law so long to realise that no matter how competent he got with his abilities, finally managing to shift that coin from one end of the table to the other with similar ease to if he'd moved it by hand, the exhaustion still lingered. By this point, White Lead was almost a distant memory, so he couldn't blame that, and the mental strain had been trained out of him, leaving the revelation that his own fruit was sapping his strength.

That was unhelpful, to say the least. Law could tell that his stamina wasn't ideal (he could beat Penguin and Shachi in many things, but endurance was not one of them), and with his medical history it was unlikely he would ever be able to match the older boys on that front. Below average stamina alongside a stamina-sapping fruit was not a good match-up. Still, he was unrelenting in his training – if not more so, after the revelation. The more he pushed himself, the more his overall stamina increased, and even if he was never going to reach the heights of some people, he could at least make it so that he didn't get light-headed after moving a coin.

I don't think Law needs all those hand and finger gestures to use his abilities, it's just a way to help channel his focus so it makes it easier for him to concentrate. The actual requirements to do some of the things he does, especially ones like Takt and Shambles, seem like they might be far more complex than he makes it appear.

Thanks for reading!
Tsari