Chapter Text
Law wakes up, with a sore body and emotionally drained. Bepo was beside him, thank goodness for that, just the one he needed to see first thing after escaping the Uta world’s endless void. The pirate captain stands up from the rubble, setting aside the rubble that had trapped his arm with his devil fruit. (He feels like he’s forgetting something important, though. He’ll remember it sooner.)
“Captain, look! Uta seems to be fine... Isn’t that a bit... Strange?” Then, his half-woken mind finally catches up to reality as he whips his head around to see the father and daughter duo standing in front of the den den mushi recorder. Hand in hand, happily smiling that they could finally, finally be together again.
(Oh, Oh . Oh, holy fucking shit .)
Law hates the fact that he was going to ruin it soon.
“Swap our lifespans, Torao!” Straw Hat demanded, hissing as he whispers urgently at his ally. He knew what was happening to Uta’s lifespan (he’s seen it happen to himself before) and he knew it was in its last strands, one more song in this world of hers and she’s gone for good .
And Luffy doesn’t want to lose his first friend.
“Are you out of your mind?!” Law couldn’t bite back his remark, his emotions going haywire thanks to this idiot again! How can he just disregard his own life so easily, how can he selflessly turn away from his dream to help a loss cause?!
You’re meant to be king, he doesn’t say. Isn’t your dream more important than people that had practically abandoned you? He bites his tongue there.
“Yes! Now, do it. Or else she’s going to die!” Law wants to say no. Needs to say no. Has to say no.
But he can’t.
He can’t.
The Heart Pirates captain teleports away with a newfound purpose. His ally got himself hurt again, and with Tony-ya still probably out of comission, it’s up to him to treat whatever wound he had gotten for swapping lifespans in the first place. (Law wishes he never, ever told Luffy about the lifespan swap he discovered.)
“Mugiwara-ya...” He was somewhere else on the island; the setting sun being blocked by old buildings never to be used again. His feet pounding against the grass, searching for that familiar golden straw that the Straw hat captain always had worn on his head, the bright scarlet that was the opposite of the crimson blood he always saw.
“Mugiwara-ya!” Law tightens his grasp around his cursed blade. That damn rubber idiot better not run off somewhere else, he was injured. If his gut-feeling of the Diva’s singing fruit eating away at her life and the wake-shrooms seemingly making the process even faster, then who knows what was happening to his body?!
The quicker he finds that missing rubberman, the better. The sooner he can treat his wounds, the better-
Law sees the golden straw hat.
But it was stained with blood.
Uta doesn’t know why or how, but she feels strangely fine after singing and singing for God knows how long. She should be out like a light by now, hell, she might be even meant to be dead. “Maybe you just grew stronger.” Shanks good-heartedly suggested with a grin, this young lady was his daughter after all!
“Yeah...” She chuckles, but she wishes she could truly believe what he said. Since her heart was clawing at her insides, telling her how wrong it was for her to be smiling so naively again after all of this. Uta shoves that feeling down and focuses on what she has now, her crew, her uncles, her captain, her father .
(she’s been through enough, let her have this.)
“Where’s... Luffy...?” Still, the feeling of guilt manages to break free from the seal and engulfs her. That’s right, she tore the symbol of their new genesis and new era right in front of him. To Luffy, that must’ve been her way of showing that she has completely shattered that promise.
(She wouldn’t forget the way his face lost all color, his brown eyes encased with his grief, a sheen of wetness above it. Luffy trusted her, yet she did that to him)
She wants to make it up to him, somehow . Someway . Because Uta hurt her friend and she needs to apologize, there was no way in hell she was going to let this get swept under the rug, she needs Luffy to know that she won’t ever do that stupid thing ever again. (If it means being able to make him smile the way Shanks and the Straw hats did too.)
“She must be with his crew; the kid avoids me like the damn plague. What’s wrong with him?” The red-hair captain grumbles, literally! The kid avoids him every time he wants to catch, at least, a glimpse of him!
“For all we know, captain, he might not recognize us!” Yasopp cracked a joke. Which had some of his fellow officers worried. That would be a nightmare if Anchor wouldn’t recognize them at all! Uta knew that wasn’t the case but maybe he wouldn’t at all since most of them practically changed styles.
“DON’T SAY THAT!!” They yell at the sharpshooter, said crewmember barely dodges a meat bone thrown by their fastest crew member. The Diva sweat drops at their antics, but she’d be lying if she says she doesn’t miss it.
“Hehe. I missed this.” Uta feels Benn place his hand over her shoulder, patting it in a comforting manner.
She was finally home .
Luffy coughs into his palm, cringing at the blood splatter on it. Pain surged through him when his ally gently lifted him up. Even the slightest movement made him feel like his organs were being ripped apart! “T-Tora...o..” The younger captain heaves and Law knows he has to hurry.
His hands were in the formation of his signature move but Luffy stops him, he uses a different hand instead and that’s when the smaller man speaks up; “N-no...! No- not yet...”
“What do you mean ‘not yet’?! Mugiwara-ya, if I don’t get you hooked to a machine soon, you’ll-!” Law was about to berate him, yanking his hand away from the younger man’s smaller ones. He wasn’t going to listen to him anymore, he was going to strap him onto the infirmary bed if he had to.
“I KNOW!... I know...” Luffy starts to breathe heavily after letting out a yell. His body starts to shake in the hold of the Surgeon of Death, and for the first time after the death of his family (after Flevence’s destruction, after Cora-san's untimely demise-).
For the first time in his life. Law, a D-bearer, a doctor, a title that oozes with pain.
Felt helpless.
“I- I h-have t-to make.... sure, they’re okay...” He stutters, a weak smile gracing his pale features as blood bubbles at the corner of his mouth again. The hand that Law pulled away from starts to shake as he raises it to grip at his shirt (Law noticed how his tattoo was smudged with a bit of blood, seeing blood was normal as a doctor but this was Luffy-ya's blood- Since when did he start to call Mugiwara by his name? )
Law has to say no-
But he doesn’t .
“Room.” Luffy slides his eyes shut, leaning into the man that has ended numerous lives. Trusting the hand of a man that’s stained with the blood of his victims. (Law had a friend that trusted him with their life, his crew was understandable but Luffy-ya was nothing more than a fellow pirate.)
“Shambles.” They were gone, two large pieces of rubble in their place.
Luffy winces at the sudden movement, his eye lids tremble with his body. The blood trailing down to his chin, Law still had a secure and gentle hold around him. (Just like the aftermath of Marineford.)
“Luffy-ya, keep yourself awake!” He’s trying, Torao. Give him a break, he just fought against a Demon King and fucking won!
The Straw hats were out of place in front of the Red-hairs. Sure, they kind of allied for a bit during their desperate fight against the Demon King of Songs but that was just about it. Luffy was the one who gathered them all together, whether intentionally or not. This was the same Luffy they were all fond of.
Uta knows she was getting the cold shoulder from Luffy’s first mate, but the rest of the crew seem more welcoming, albeit wary but welcoming.
Usopp remains with his crew and makes no move to go to Yasopp, the sharpshooter of the Red-hairs respected his son’s boundaries and decided to wait until he was comfortable enough to walk over to him himself. Chopper was a bit tired yet still managed to check up on the entire crew’s status.
“Oh, Torao you-” Robin’s heart leaps to her throat. Jinbei fears the worst and his world cracks when said fear seems to have come true.
Shanks has seen death. Countless of times. As a Pirate Apprentice. As a pirate captain.
His childhood had always been him revealed to numerous fights and bloodshed. His captain always shrugged it off and Shanks decided he should too. (Roger didn’t shrug it off, he remembers it all. In a way to honor their deaths.)
His captain died.
And Luffy-
Luffy was going to-
“LUFFY!”