Chapter 41
Rosinante sighed as he walked out the trees of the forest. Aokiji had wandered off when they were supposed to just stop for a bathroom break. Jeez, it was so annoying. Why couldn't they just find Law already? He was getting closer and closer to Sabaody! Much to Rosinante's surprise though, there was a large group of people with Aokiji when Rosinante finally found him, and those people were the Straw Hat Pirates. It looked like Aokiji had already gotten them wound out too. Rosinante sighed at the sight. Didn't he just want to check up on where Nico Robin had gotten to after Alabasta? Not actually see her?
"My marine code is 'lazy justice'," Aokiji said, lying down.
"WE CAN TELL!" Two of the Straw Hats yelled.
"Aokiji, what are you doing?" Rosinante huffed.
"They ran into me," Aokiji said, pointing at the raccoon, thing? "At least the raccoon did."
"I'M NOT A RACCOON!"
"GUM-" Monkey D. Luffy began, but his two friends held him back.
Rosinante sighed. "Oi, you're Monkey D. Luffy right? Law's friend?"
Luffy instantly stopped moving and stared at him. "You know Traffy?"
"Traffy?" Rosinante blinked, then chuckled. "I can already tell Law would love that. Yeah, I'm Rosinante-"
"He calls you Cora-san!" Luffy grinned.
Rosinante softened. "Have you heard from him lately?"
"Nope. I haven't seen Traffy in years," Luffy admitted. "Although now that I'm sailing I might run into him soon. Shishishishi, I can't wait!"
"You really are just like him." Aokiji sat up, staring at Luffy. "Your gramps I mean."
"G-Gramps!" Luffy went pale and even began to tremble.
Yeah, Rosinante didn't blame him. Garp was terrible.
"Your gramps really helped me out a while back, so I did want to see how you had turned out." Aokiji's face darkened. "Or maybe, you should just die here."
Rosinante gasped. "What was that turn in conversation?"
"The world government is still taking your group lightly, but if I delve into your history, you guys have some real backbone. Your group is small right now, but progressing way too fast. I don't think there has been any crew out there that has progressed as fast as the Straw Hats. You lot are going to lead to big problems for us later down the line. I can say that for sure." Aokiji's eyes landed on Robin. "And you are the most dangerous one here, Nico Robin."
The witch of the Death Clan. Rosinante frowned. The poor woman. She was the one head witch the World Government wanted dead.
"You survived as a child by delving deep into the Underworld, picking up and dropping people when it suited you most. You betrayed, lied, stole and used people to protect you, then let go of them the moment they were no longer of use to you," Aokiji continued on. "And now these kids are your new meal ticket."
Robin inhaled sharply, trembling.
"Oi, you jerk! Don't be rude to Robin-chan!" Blondie hissed. "What grudge do you have against her?"
"I don't have one. I actually let her go once, a long time ago. Soon enough you lot will regret letting this woman into your lives. She's a very troublesome witch," Aokiji said. "After all, every organisation she's ever joined have all ended up destroyed, with only her ever surviving them, right, Nico Robin?"
The kids all ranted at Aokiji, and Rosinante couldn't help but smile as he walked past Aokiji, but yelped when he tripped and slammed face first into a tree.
"Careful, Rosinante," Aokiji sighed.
"Ouch!" Rosinante rubbed his face.
"Just get to the point already!" Robin screamed. "If you want to capture me, then hurry up and do it!"
Rosinante missed Aokiji's back being snapped in half. Not that it would have been very effective mind you.
"He shattered into pieces and died!" the raccoon cried.
"He's a Logia," Rosinante huffed.
"Then you need haki," Luffy said, his hands darkening.
"Garp taught you haki then?" Rosinante had to admit, he was surprised, Garp tended to forget about haki training until Bogard reminded him.
"Wrong! Shadow Lady did!"
Shadow Lady? Rosinante paused. Right, Portgas D. Rouge, Portgas D. Ace's mother. Hibiscus Rouge. It had taken a lot for Rosinante to find out more about her, but it had been a relief to know she had taken Law under her wing, to know that she would protect him while he grew up.
Sadly it didn't look like Luffy's haki was the best, or that he could concentrate while so upset, because when he went to punch Aokiji, Aokiji froze his hand, the green haired guy's arm, and blondie's leg. He then hugged Robin and froze her solid too.
Rosinante scowled. Aokiji wanted to test the Straw Hats, but wasn't freezing Robin whole going a bit too far? Now the Straw Hats were running about, trying to protect Robin's frozen body. Well, looks like Aokiji had his answer. They weren't abandoning her due to a difficult fight, but of course Aokiji wasn't satisfied, he just had to continue.
It ended with Luffy demanding a duel, and being frozen in place.
"He's got to learn to control his emotions during a fight," Rosinante chuckled. "He's too fired up to concentrate on his haki."
"He did manage to land one punch on me, but that was all," Aokiji said as he climbed on his bike. Rosinante sat on the seat behind him, curling his legs up. He hated riding like this, but it was all Aokiji would use, and Sengoku insisted that Rosinante couldn't be trusted on a bike.
He only fell off a couple of times...
.::.
Law followed Penguin and Shachi as he read the witch's tome. He trusted them to lead him about, and for Bepo to nudge him about if necessary while Law read. It was rare to find a shop that catered to witches without everything either being fake or extortionate prices, but Water 7 had a large shop dedicated to witch tomes, ingredients for potions, and plenty of medicinal herbs that were on the right side of buying, nor was it a trap to lure witches away to be kidnapped and enslaved by Doflamingo's slavers. That happened too, but just to nature witches, head witches were always handed over to the World Government, never sold as slaves. Law had heard of somebody trying to do so once, and the person had been found murdered days later after the witch and her sisters had apparently been sold off.
Hopefully that witch had managed to escape their slavery.
"Hey, look who it is!" Shachi laughed.
Law looked up. Luffy was at the edge of the road, swinging some kind of briefcase about, right outside the cashing store.
"Long time no see, Luffy-ya."
Luffy paused mid-step and beamed, and of course accidentally let go of the case. It went flying, as did the two other Straw Hats who screamed and leapt after it. Law quickly opened up a room and brought the two Straw Hats back to land, just as Luffy pulled the suitcase back with his arm, laughing.
"Traffy! It's so good to see you!" Luffy beamed, rushing up to him.
Law winced when Luffy yanked him into a hug, squeezing him tight.
"Oi, don't suffocate our Captain, you squirt!" Shachi yelled.
"Whale!" Luffy yelled, jumping off Law, raising his fists. "Bring it on!"
"Why should I, rubber boy?" Shachi stuck his tongue out.
"Behave yourselves," Law sighed.
"LUFFY!" The orange haired girl smacked Luffy across the back of his head. "You nearly lost our money!"
"Yeah!" Long Nose-ya yelled. "Be more careful!"
"S-Sorry!" Luffy said nervously.
"I heard you spoke to Rouge-ya, Thatch-ya and Sabo-ya lately," Law said.
"Wait, hold on a second," Nami said. "Thank you for saving us, but who are you?"
"Trafalgar Law," Law introduced himself. "These are my crew mates, Penguin, Shachi and Bepo."
"Hello, beautiful!" Shachi winked.
"Hey, pretty lady," Shachi grinned.
Those dorks.
"I'm sorry." Bepo bowed his head.
"We grew up with Luffy and Ace for a time," Law explained. "Luffy-ya, they told you about Ace?"
"I know about Ace. That Blackbeard guy kidnapped him," Luffy said.
"You're taking it more reasonably than I thought you would," Law mused.
"Guess the squirt is growing up." Shachi grinned.
"Not really, I was angry," Luffy admitted.
Law sighed. "I understand, and you are still young, especially for a pirate Captain, but you're going to have to grow up faster, especially at the rate your moving through the Grandline. If you just keep sailing through recklessly, you're going to get yourselves killed."
Luffy shook his head. "I've got a strong crew at my side."
"That's good to hear at least," Law said, digging into his pocket. "I finally got sent a photograph of Blackbeard. If you see this guy-" He pulled out the photograph, and Nami and Luffy's faces both fell. Usopp went pale.
"Oh my god-" Nami gasped.
Luffy twitched, his face growing murderous.
"You've seen him before." Law frowned. "Where?"
"Jaya," Nami said. "He tried to claim Luffy's bounty, but we were pushed up to the Sky Islands before he could do anything."
"I never saw Ace with him, nor on his ship," Luffy said.
"He must have kept Ace away since it was you they were fighting," Law said.
"Wait! That man..." Nami gasped.
"Nami?" Luffy frowned.
"There was one person we saw who wasn't on the ship, Luffy," Nami said. "He was sat behind Blackbeard in Mock Town, do you remember? The man in the black hoodie! He kept himself hidden the entire time from us. From you! Right until Blackbeard walked away from us. That's the only time we saw him."
Luffy froze. "Ace... I... We were that close to him?" Luffy snarled. "Damn that bastard! I'll kick Blackbeard's ass!"
Shit, Ace had been steps away from Luffy, and they wouldn't have known it.
Law frowned. "Teach is dangerous, Luffy. Very dangerous. And speaking of dangerous things, you lot need to learn to be quiet."
Luffy huffed and crossed his arms. "I still want to punch him..."
"Huh? What do you mean by that, Law?" Nami startled.
"You guys said you had a lot of money out loud," Penguin pointed out. "If we were your enemies, we'd rob you three in a heart beat."
"But since we know this squirt, we're not gonna unless Captain says otherwise," Shachi laughed.
"Bring it on, Whale!" Luffy bristled.
Law ignored them both as he turned to Bepo, but thankfully Bepo was already contacting Rouge. Law knew that Thatch and Rouge had already been contacted by the Whitebeards about Ace's vivre card, but they needed to know that Luffy saw the Blackbeards, that Ace had been hiding from them, and where exactly they had been seen.
"So what are you here for, Luffy?" Penguin asked.
"We're here to get our ship fixed up and find a shipwright to join our crew," Luffy said.
"Nice!" Penguin grinned. "It's a really important role too. We've got Uni as ours thankfully. We could do little jobs for the Polar Tang, but Uni knows her inside out and how to repair anything that goes wrong with her."
"We're about to head out to see Mr. Iceberg," Nami said. "Did you want to join us?"
"Sure," Law said, shrugging.
Penguin threw him a surprised look, but Law eyed the stairs above them, where some guys were lurking about. Law's haki had locked on to them pretty quickly, and Penguin must have caught on too, because he glanced up that way without moving his head then grinned.
"We've got nothing better to do, so let's go." Penguin nodded.
.::.
The Franky Family stole Straw Hat's money, but before Law could teleport it back, some blonde guy came crashing down on top of the thieves, one of the Gallery La workers. The only problem was, he then tried to steal the money. Thankfully the pigeon guy went after him and dragged him back by his ear.
"Not my ear!" Blondie complained, clutching the pigeon guy's hand.
"We've brought the troublemaker back, Iceburg-san," the pigeon said.
"Thank you, Lucci."
"Apologise to them right now, Paulie!" 'Lucci' ordered. "And hand them back their money!"
Lucci shoved the cases into Paulie's hands who grimaced, but brought it over to Luffy.
"Hey, you're the owner of the money right?" Paulie handed both cases to Luffy.
"Yeah, thanks for getting them back, shishishishi." Luffy grinned.
"If you wanna thank me give me ten percent-"
Lucci grabbed the back of his hair and dragged him back, earning a hiss of pain.
"Sorry about this guy, he's got a bad gambling habit and has no manners," 'Lucci' sighed.
Law paused when his eyes met Paulie's and frowned thoughtfully. Paulie managed to get Lucci to let go of his hair and offered Law a small wave.
"Hi, brother," Paulie greeted awkwardly.
"Hello, brother." Law nodded.
"Eh? Brother?" The Straw Hats startled.
"This guy is a witch too, Captain?" Shachi frowned thoughtfully.
"Not that it is something we tend to advertise often," Iceburg said, frowning. "So I do hope you will keep that news on the quieter side."
Law snorted. "I wouldn't worry about my crew, but Straw Hat-ya has a big mouth."
"Rude, Traffy!" Luffy scowled. "I've kept your secret for years-"
"It's not a secret after that damnable Hawkins blurted it out in front of everyone years ago," Law bristled. "The fucker." Law eyed Paulie. "So which one are you?"
Paulie shifted. "You might not have heard of it..."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Shachi blinked.
"Years ago there was a clan that sort of died out, or got lost, not really sure to be honest. But I don't know much about it," Paulie explained quietly. "I don't know what our name is, nor really how to use that magic."
"EH?!" Luffy screeched.
"And your grimoire won't tell you anything?" Law gasped.
"No, it remained blank," Paulie whined, even as he summoned the grimoire to his hands, opening it up. "Look!"
Law's jaw dropped. Holy shit, it really was blank.
"What magic is it supposed to be?" Law asked.
"Creation. I'm supposed to be able to create things I guess?" Paulie looked frazzled. "But I can't. I can do basic spells I learned from the tomes in the shops, and I'm really good at creating potions, but I can't use my own clan's magic to save myself. If I could, I'd create Kalifa a pair of trousers!"
Kalifa smiled sheepishly.
"Trousers?" Nami tilted his head.
"And a pair for you two! Why are you women wearing such short skirts? It's not work appropriate!" Paulie ranted, and hissed when Lucci grabbed his wrist, forcing him back away from the women.
"If you want I can check your magical energy later," Law muttered to him, making him pause.
"You would do that?" Paulie paused.
"Yeah, I have to admit, it's not just for you, I'm curious about your clan's nature. I never heard of a Creation clan."
"Most people haven't. None of us have been able to use that magic for years," Paulie admitted.
"Let's go inside, and Paulie and you can use a room," Iceburg said. "And thank you in advance, Trafalgar Law. If you ever need any repair work done, let us know. It will be on the house."
"It's not a problem, as I said, I'm curious," Law said.
"But thank you, we'd be happy to take you up on your generous offer some day!" Penguin grinned, cutting in.
Law couldn't help but smile fondly at that, then lowered his voice. "Penguin, Shachi, keep an eye on the Straw Hats. They're holding a lot of money."