Uninformed

Characters: Law. Rating: K+. Warnings: SPOILERS for chapter 914

To say there was one thing Law really hated about his current situation would be an understatement. There were several things Law hated about it, from the fact his nakama were still recovering from their previous encounter with Kaido's crew to the kimono he'd been forced to wear in an attempt to not stand out too much.

However, the fact that currently had his teeth grinding together in frustration as he realised how wrong everything was about to go – that no matter how quickly they acted the situation was already unsalvageable but he was going to have to clean up anyway – was Wano's isolationism. He'd survived the past thirteen years by keeping an ear to the ground, getting the latest news from the News Coo while contacts and espionage gave him the missing links the World Government didn't want the world to know.

Not just him, he corrected, seeing the panicked faces of Penguin, Shachi and Bepo, who knew as well as he did that it was too late – if there had been a chance, any chance at all, they wouldn't have bothered coming back to report before acting. The four of them had eluded Doflamingo by luck and incessant information gathering ever since they'd met on Swallow Island, all those years ago.

Information gathering on Wano, about Wano affairs, was a simple task for them. Law knew all too well the current state of the land and the poison both Kaido and the Shogun were infecting the land with, as well as the names and ranks of anyone who was anyone. They were ready to make a move as soon as the time came, when Mugiwara-ya returned from his suicide mission into Big Mom's territory and roared into the country in that rubbery, irritating, manner he had.

The problem, it quickly transpired, was that with Wano cut off from the rest of the world, they didn't get the News Coo. That wasn't to say the birds didn't fly around the area – Law had seen them on several occasions during his time on Wano, all headed for the Shogun's palace where the hypocrite of a man was clearly keeping himself up to date on the state of the world even as he campaigned for continued isolation. But Law couldn't get any deliveries himself. A News Coo dropping off a paper somewhere that wasn't the palace would draw far too much attention, so Law had no choice but to grit his teeth, keep his ear to the ground, and hope against hope that Mugiwara-ya would be contained by his more sensible nakama long enough for them to rendezvous.

Law had thought it before, and it was no less true this time around: the world had never been particularly inclined to do what he wanted.

The result of his attempt to sneak into Totto Land would have been published in the newspaper. If Law had had that, he might have had a warning that Mugiwara-ya was on the way and sent the Tang out in an attempt to intercept them; after all, there was only one way they'd find their way to Wano and that was Bepo's vivre card. Sending the Mink out to meet them would have ensured success.

Law had not been willing to send Bepo and the Tang out for an undetermined amount of time, with no way of keeping in communication, nor even a guarantee that the Sunny would ever appear (no matter what insane luck the other captain held, Law couldn't logically say with certainty he'd succeed, although with the rubberman's vivre card doing little more than smoulder occasionally it seemed as though he was at least not dying).

He should have done, though, and he cursed himself in the sanctity of his own mind for not believing in the Will of D. just a little bit more, for being too clingy to his crew since the events of Zou, because Bepo would have been fine (most likely) and Mugiwara-ya was doing the worst possible thing in the way he always did because no-one had been there to stop him.

As he scrambled to put contingency plans and damage control into action, Law supposed he was going to have to hope that between them, they had enough of the Will of D.'s miracle-causing properties to not turn the whole thing into an entirely irredeemable disaster.

Okay, I don't like starting an A/N on a dour note but I can't find another way to resolve this:

I recently discovered that someone has been reposting this story on another site (not AO3; that is me crossposting). That other site has no contact us and no way for me to see who's doing it (it's under my name but I certainly didn't put it there) so I can't quietly ask for it to stop, so I have no choice but to make the request publicly: if you're the person that's been reposting this story, please take it down.

For my anime-only readers, I'll be going back to generic non-spoilery Hearts content tomorrow!

Thanks for reading!
Tsari