AN: Yes. I know I should be working on other things. But the idea came to me today and wouldn't leave. No spoilers in the comments please, I'm still reading through Wano at a slow pace.

"Too talented to be all about working hard and not talented enough to get by on just talent."

Chapter One: Roped Into This

Keiri found himself awake, without consent and without meaning. His eyes seeing nothing but darkness as they failed to discern what was real and what was not.

It was routine, at this point. Through rote memorization, he felt along the bed until he found his spot, getting up as quietly as he could to not disturb anyone else in the house he shared with some other dock workers.

Making his way to the door, he opened it gently, his body feeling like it had to be silent, as if there was a great danger lurking just out of reach. He knew it was paranoia brought along by another nightmare, but the only cure he had found was to listen to it.

The small light of the crescent moon illuminated the hallway as he slipped through towards the kitchen and the exit to the world beyond.

With practiced ease, he began to brew a pot of coffee. It would keep for another hour or two before their shifts started, and he knew his housemates tended to appreciate having a pot already made when they awoke.

Keiri didn't know why, but most days he didn't even finish drinking his cup. Something about the warmth and the smell brought a sense of familiarity from somewhere deep inside him, even if he didn't know where from.

The coffee was an engraving upon his life. A chisel to mark each day as beginning. It wasn't about waking up, it was about the affirmation that it occurred.

There was meaning in that.

With the cup in hand, he slipped on his boots and eased out the front door, some part of him thankful he had managed to avoid anyone.

His housemates were nothing but polite. He wasn't sure why he dreaded every possible conversation with them.

He shook the question away. His life was a series of questions without answers, and effects without causes. The secret to him living it wasn't to find the answers. It was living without them.

Loguetown. The moon casts a light on the island, as the stars shine overhead. It was cold in a way that was fitting, even as he made his way over to the docks.

Work would start soon, but he could get started on it what he could now. Their boss was well used to his odd sleep schedule, his chronic fatigue. As long as Keiri got the work done, that was all that mattered.

They used a variety of cranes to move the cargo that came in, things that moved with levers and pulleys, rope and coils. Every day, without fail, Keiri would make sure everything was right. Any rope that began to fray would be replaced, any rigging he saw shoddily done redone, and any knots that needed to be tied were tied.

The work was almost meditative, his brain vacating it's constant train of thought as it was forced to focus on what was in front of it. But, all good things came to an end, and judging by the moon in the sky, there was another hour until work came.

So, in an effort to continue the act of mindlessness, he moved to the edge of the dock, and began to practice with his power.

He was told he played a dangerous game, coming out here with no one around. If he slipped into the dark water, no one would be around to save him. He would simply slide into the gently moving waves, and he would never come back up.

Some part of him wasn't scared of that.

He made sure not to voice that out loud.

The ropes at his side began to twitch, as he forced them into movement. As far as he knew, he had always had this ability. It started small, with just being able to make a rope twitch, to change how long it is, but as he practiced he got better at it.

Now, the ropes almost moved like they were alive. As an extension of him as opposed to something different.

It felt good to use his power like this. As it snaked out across the water, moving faster and faster, he found himself not needing to know why. It just simply was. The ropes extended, and began to wrap around the ships lined up at the docks.

It was an exercise he loved. He couldn't see through them, but he could feel where they were, the resistance as they met a solid object. And so, they moved back and forth like a snake, feeling for surroundings and moving from there.

It was like a puzzle, a million little pieces that came to form a world that only he could know.

A far off roar cut through the night, a distant albeit familiar campaign. Few people were up this early, but one always was. The Marine captain who protected the town always made sure to patrol on his motorcycle, the engine kept to its quietest noise, still a rumbling sound that let any criminals know that he was there, waiting to catch them.

He didn't like the man.

He didn't have any reason to dislike him. When he was younger and Captain Smoker was first deployed there, all the other kids thought he was the coolest. A real marine, a man who could hunt pirates and throw down with the best of them.

But some part of him recoiled when he drew near. And the man did draw near on a regular basis.

Keiri knew why, of course.

He had a devil fruit. The rope-rope fruit. He used it publically, as part of his job. And, he trained with it in the mornings when no one was around.

No one except for Captain Smoker.

When he was young, the man asked him if he wanted to join the marines. The captain probably expected for someone like him to want to join. A devil fruit ,an opportunity to join the heroes of the world, to make something of himself.

So, Keiri had to decline.

It was a cowardly decision, he knew. But he didn't want to be somebody. At least, he didn't think that was the path he wanted.

He would help someone who was in front of him of course. But that wasn't because he felt he was particularly altruistic. It was more… The cost didn't mean anything to him to help, so he helped.

The marine captain accepted his decision, at the moment. And now, years later, he still feels his eyes as he practices.

Watching for what Kirei would do.

And, as he continued through the exercise, stretching the ropes further and further, truly pushing how far they could go, he heard that roar of the motorcycle come up behind him, as the marine stepped forward towards Kirei.

The cigars hanging in his mouth cast his face in a small light of the early morning, the smoke wrapping around and framing his face like a portrait, ephemeral and shifting though it may be.

"You've gotten better."

It's a compliment. Kirei has no reason to dislike him.

But he still dislikes him.

"Thank you. I know you must have seen much more impressive abilities." He didn't have to be rude, however. Smoker had never done anything to earn his ire. He worked through it, the best he could.

A sigh left the man as smoke followed with it.

"And yet half of them don't train like you do. They make up for it with drive and moxie."

The words unspoken hung in the air. They don't train like he did.

And he didn't have a dream like they did.

It was an old argument. One that stung, as much as it could when the spot had been hit so repeatedly over the years.

He can feel his attention grow taut, as he multitasked the conversation with the ropes that were even now reaching ever outwards.

Searching for something.

"I know I'm not like them, sir. I didn't ask to be."

"And yet, here you are. Standing at the sea, your hands extended, trying to reach for something out there. You could do something with your life. You're a young man, but you could still enlist. Hell, you could leave this town. Explore the sea, get rid of some of that melancholy that always surrounds you. I've watched you train for years, and yet you don't have the slightest idea why you do it, do you?"

Kirei paused, the feeling unusual in his chest.

Did he know why?

It wasn't like Smoker to be this direct. He wondered if something occurred that could have caused this.

"I think I'm waiting."

His eyes turned back towards the sea.

"Waiting for what? A cry for help? Somebody to extend a hand?"

The answer came to him, then, even as little sense as it made.

"I think… that I am waiting for the day when things make sense. It's not fear that keeps me here Captain. I'm not afraid. I could die any day, from a million different things that I have no control over. I have no grand ambitions. But I have… a feeling. That someday, something will come along, and I will have a choice in front of me."

"And you think that choice will fix you? Put that spark in you that you lack?

"...Maybe. I think it would be nice. To want something because I want it. Not just because I am trying on someone else's ideas like a coat, to shrug off when it no longer fits."

The Captain lets the silence fill the air for a long moment, before turning back towards his bike, the man's mind satisfied, for a moment.

"Come with me. I want to show you something."

Or maybe not.

"Sir, I do have work in less than an hour."

"Then you can tell that boss of yours that I made you do it. I do my damn job well enough to be able to ask for something so little."

Kirei swallowed something that felt like trepidation, and began to walk towards the captain.

His desires didn't matter, in the end.

The Captain paused as he climbed on his motorcycle, looking back towards Kirei as something came to him.

"We are heading towards the marine base. Can you keep up?"

It was a question that startled him. Could he?

He pulled himself up the rigging by his own ropes. Could he do the same-

With the ropes at his side, he held out a hand, willing them to move towards a roof top, wrapping around a weather vane.

And then, with a thought, the length shrunk, dragging him through the air towards the other end.

It was something he had never tried before, and yet, he found himself taking to it with ease, even as he stumbled as he landed on the roof.

Through the darkness of the early morning, he looked back towards Smoker, giving a nod and a thumbs up towards the man.

He could keep up.

And if he couldn't, he would keep trying until he did.

The following minutes were a blur, his mind focusing only on following the back of Smoker, following that roar, as his body sweated and his arms ached as he continued to shoot through the air, each pull bringing him a little closer, each pause to catch his footing bringing him further behind.

And yet, he did make it.

The sign of the marine base was a perfect point for his rope to reach, bringing him towards it within a moment, the captain waiting there for him, having arrived about twenty seconds before he did.

He knew Smoker took it easy on him, but Kirei couldn't bring himself to care at that moment.

It was a muscle he didn't know he had ever felt the urge to stretch, and yet now that he did he couldn't wait to use it again.

It was power for power's sake.

It was the closest thing to happiness he felt, even as fragile as it was.

Smoker let him catch his breath, before holding open the gate for Kirei as Smoker led the way.

"That your first time doing that?"

"Yes. Was it so obvious?"

"It was when you got better at it. Near the end, even as you got tired, your form was improving. You've got a versatile ability. That's important."

Is it?

"Is yours?"

The question slips out. Curiosity, mostly. He had no idea what was considered a powerful ability or a versatile one. It's not like he had ever really seen the man's ability in action.

If the man was offended by it, he didn't show it.

"Yes. Yes it is. A logia's abilities are often thought to be nigh invincible if you don't have the correct counter on hand. Mine also allows me mobility and offensive power, and the ability to capture and restrain targets. All combined, I can adapt to most situations and in the end, win out. There's a reason no pirate has managed to escape me yet. There's a reason why I want you to enlist. Your ability can let you attack, restrain, and as you've just shown, allow you to be mobile. That can be a powerful combination in the right hands."

And he wasn't using any of them.

Because Kirei didn't want to hunt pirates. He didn't want to leave Loguetown.

The guilt weighed inside him. But his selfish lack of desires won out. He wouldn't go and do something he wouldn't like just because it made him feel bad now. Kirei was used to feeling bad. It was an emptiness that would pass in time.

Taking Kirei's silence as an answer in itself, Smoker continued to lead the way through the yard surrounding the marine base.

And there, up as early as them, was a girl.

He recognized her, he realized. Not someone he actually ever knew the name of, but he saw her with the rest of marines running around town in the rare times he was awake as the rest of the world was.

A sword in hand, she was swinging in a practiced motion, the air filled with the sound of it cutting again and again.

"Tashigi! We've got a guest."

With a slight squawk of surprise, the woman quickly turned to face us, apparently as unprepared for this as he was.

As embarrassment and an apology left her lips, Smoker brushed it aside, continuing as if nothing of note had occurred.

"Tashigi, this is Kirei. Kirei, this is Tashigi. She's younger than you, but she's been training to be a marine. And currently, she's been lacking any good opponents."

The statement hung in the air as Kirei looked towards Smoker and back towards the now named Tashigi.

"And you expect me to be that opponent?"

"I expect you to try. You've got an ability that she hasn't fought before. If she's going to make it without one, then she needs to learn how to deal with them. And about the only thing that seems to motivate you is pushing yourself. So. In the name of keeping an eye on you, I'm going to make you push yourself."

"He has a what? Wait, is he the guy with the rope ability that's always at the docks? What are you roping me into sir!?"

Kirei briefly let out a small snort at the pun, however unintentional.

"See? She already got a laugh out of you. It will do you some good. Consider it an order for the sake of your development."

"I'm not a marine sir. I don't think you can give me orders."

"And I don't think you particularly have a reason to say no. You just like to be a smartass about things. Tashigi, are you ready to go?"

With a small huff, the woman nodded, bringing her practice blade in front of her.

The wood wouldn't kill, but it would hurt.

Wood hurt.

Heh.

"I suppose I am. But he is a civilian sir, devil fruit ability or no."

"Suggestion heard, and ignored. You two will begin on the count of three."

Kirei didn't recall ever accepting, but dimly, he realized he didn't really care.

The ropes at his side twitched, as he felt them coil up and around his arms.

"One."

She breathed out herself, matching her breathing to the world.

"Two."

He brought his fists up. He was never much of a fighter. He always felt it took too much energy to fight. Energy he sorely lacked.

"Three!"

And with that, they both leaped into motion. His ropes reached out towards the woman as she dashed towards him, sword held low, a cut racing towards the rope closest to her.

She did succeed in cutting the end off, but unfortunately for her, he wasn't depending on the actual length of rope with him. His ability allowed him to change the length of the rope at will, and he used it to extend the piece past where she cut where the sword had already swung-

Only for it to be cut again, as well as the one extending from his left arm as she kept the blade moving.

More ropes shot out behind him, feeling the grass to keep an idea of his footing as he began to back up, trying to make space even as she advanced, momentarily slowed by keeping off his onslaught as she did.

With each cut, he knew the "reserve" of rope he had was getting smaller. He couldn't extend them indefinitely, even if the amount he could extend it by did get larger the more he practiced with it. Eventually, the rope would reach the point where it couldn't go any further. Stretching it beyond that point made it get thinner, and then it would be just barely a thread. And once something was no longer a rope, he couldn't affect it anymore.

So, this stalemate couldn't last forever in its current state. Even if he did manage to keep away from her, eventually she would cut his rope down to that state. And then, he would have nothing.

So, he would just have to get tricky. From behind him, a rope moved towards a flag pole, pulling himself to it to dodge out of the way of the training blade as she finally broke through.

Two lengths of rope reached back out towards her, maintaining the assault, even as he began to sweat from the exertion.

But, it only took one moment to catch her off guard.

A snare he set before he moved reached out of the grass, winding its way around her ankle in an instant.

With a cry, she moved her blade towards it to cut it.

Unfortunately, the awkwardness involved in reaching down to cut it meant that she left herself open to the assault in front of her, the ropes shooting towards her wrists and wrapping around them, the blade clutched tightly in a hand that could no longer move it.

With a breath that he was holding now released, he took it the rest of the way, the three ropes working together to restrain her to end the spar.

It was a good feeling, overcoming an opponent. He wondered why that was. He had never felt it before-

He was interrupted as she let out a shocked gasp.

"What the hell are you doing you pervert!"

She struggled as the ropes continued to reinforce the bindings, making sure to distribute the weight across her body so that it didn't put any pressure where it wasn't needed. If he had to restrain someone, the least he could is make sure it didn't hurt.

"Pervert?"

He wracked his brain trying to see what he did wrong. All he did was restrain her?

Smoker took the moment to speak up.

"You… did well, Kirei. Now please, let her out of those."

With a thought, the ropes went slack, and then undid themselves, knots untying as they snaked their way back towards him.

She shuddered slightly as she got up.

"Please… never do that again. To anybody. Ever."

Frowning, Kirei nodded. He didn't really see what he did wrong.

Still, Smoker seemed to be satisfied with it.

"You rely too much on your ability. Too little training with your body and you will be caught out in a moment. But, you at least know how to use it well. And you taught Tashigi a valuable lesson about watching her surroundings."

Kirei nodded. It was true. When he could do most of his work with his ropes, he had seldom reason to truly force himself. Was that really such a bad thing?

"I'll see you here tomorrow. Come before your work, I'll make sure Tashigi is up by then. Iron sharpens Iron. With any luck, you'll start to see why I want you in this line of work. Got it?"

The tone brokered no argument.

Kirei still didn't want to join the marines.

But… maybe using his power like this wasn't such a bad thing.

If he was lucky, he might be so exhausted that he didn't have any dreams.