She shifted in the bed, slowly blinking herself awake to find herself laying next to the person that had haunted her for nearly a decade. He was laying on his back, eyes closed. He'd given her the only pillow on the bed, and instead had his hands behind his head.
He opened his honey brown eyes and glanced over at her with a bit of a smirk, "yo."
She smiled at how casual he was after all the time they'd spent apart. He shifted so he was laying on his side facing her and asked, "how long are you staying for?"
"I should be heading back. Only Toru and Ace knew I was coming here. It was mostly to check in on Luffy," she admitted.
His expression didn't change as he replied, "Alright Ri. I'll see you soon though?"
"We'll see what my higher ups say. I can't make any promises, Law, I'm sorry," she answered as she stood up from the bed, noting he'd let her have all of the blankets as well, all he'd done was lay down next to her.
He glanced towards her as he gently scolded her, "enough with your apologizing, Rina. Death God or not, you don't control everything."
"True enough," she agreed as she drew her Zanpakuto blade and whispered a command to it. The blade began to glow green, an aura of green light surrounding her and when it dissipated she was gone from his room.
He debated getting some actual sleep himself for a moment, but quickly decided against it. He grabbed his hat off of the night table and sat up. He placed his hat back on his head and picked up Kikuko. Standing from his bed he opened his bedroom door and headed back out towards the main deck of the Polar Tang.
He opened the door to the main deck and was pleased to no longer hear the explosive blows from Strawhat attacking anything he could swing at or screaming at the top of his lungs for his deceased brother.
He listened intently for a while before going back inside the submarine, he brought the door over but didn't close it completely. He sat on the floor near the door instead and thought about his conversation with Rina earlier. He had a daughter. Of all the strange ways he could imagine his life twisting and turning, parenthood had never been in the top three on his list. He always thought betrayal, or a saboteur from Doflamingo's crew would be possible. He thought about what Rina had said about their daughter's mere existence technically being illegal in her world. He figured she'd kept tight lipped about the girl's paternity as a means of protecting both of them, entrusting the truth only to those she felt certain wouldn't betray that trust.
His daughter was born of a human and a death god, but had apparently inherited the will of D as well. As if he didn't have enough motivation to find the truth about the void century and the will of D before. Any reasons he previously had paled in comparison to his reason now. As a parent, it was now his responsibility to find out all he can about the will of D, he had to, just in case something happened and his daughter somehow became a target of the World Government in his world. As her father, it was his job to protect her from any and all threats, but to do so in such a way that wouldn't impede her development or maturing into a grown woman.
Even if that risk was low, it was still a risk he had to investigate. Not just for his own curiosity anymore, it was for Cora's sake. He then thought back to why she had been recalled six years ago, because of the threat of her friend's biological father breaking out of their prison. which he had eventually done. How she'd done all she could to ensure the most dangerous weapon to ever exist was hidden where no one would be able to attain it easily but didn't elaborate where. She'd also mentioned that Luffy's brother, Ace, had helped her in a very innocent way: by making her part of his crew for a brief time. But she had missed her family back home, especially Cora.
He leaned against the wall behind him and wondered about Rina's pregnancy with her. He'd missed six years. Sure, Cora was only five but it takes nine months to grow a baby inside of your body. He began to wonder if she'd had an aversion to bread while she was pregnant, or what she had craved. Had she carried high or low? How long was the labour? Was it insanely painful like he'd read about or was she one of the women who breeze d through labour like it was nothing worse than bad cramps? All questions for another time right now the most pressing question he was considering was the one that he kept going back to: how could he get closer to the truth about the will of D and use that information to protect Cora?
If he considered everything he already knew, it stood to reason that the World Government would have some kind of information on the Will of D. In contrast if Ace's execution had taught him anything it was that even the Marines, possibly the world Government itself, knew little about it. Finding out what they did know would be a first step to finding more information about it.
He also knew that Doflamingo was likely abusing his Warlord status to cause problems in this world, however he wasn't sure exactly what he'd be involved with. A possible steppingstone to solving both issues simultaneously came to him. He'd have to become one of the Seven Warlords of the sea—but how could he achieve that?
A smirk crossed his lips as he concluded the answer was simple. He was known as the Surgeon of Death after all. Why not make use of that moniker?
"Captain!"
Bepo's panicked voice reached Law's ears, he turned to face his long-time friend. The white Mink panted a little before stating, "something just killed a sea king!"
Law's eyes narrowed a little at the news as he stood up and went to investigate the cause of the creature's demise. Stepping outside he soon spotted a tall man with white hair, the same man from the Auction House on Sabaody who had been able to free the mermaid that the Straw-hat Pirates had been trying to rescue.
He observed as the man looked around for a moment before heading towards Luffy and Jinbe. Law didn't bother to pursue him and advised his friend, "it's alright Bepo. It's just another friend come by to help out Straw-hat."