Title: Nothing Changes

Summary: When she's reborn as that girl, in that city, with that brother, with that history, and with that ending… well, nothing really changes. No pairings. Self Insert as Lami. Complete.

Rated: T for slight language and death.

Warnings: Slight OOC LawLu friendship at the end. Not beta'd.

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece. Nor do I own the cover-art; cover-art is owned by Nevamyne Bloodvixen on zerochan dot net.

I.

When she is born, her parents are elated with joy. She is born on a bright, sunny day, and there were hardly any complications during labor. She is born a healthy, baby girl in the family hospital. She doesn't see her brother until much later, but he seems glad to meet her as well.

To her, it is as if she has woken up from a deep and dark slumber. She has been pulled out from the darkness and into a bright new world – a new life. It is a life that she didn't expect or want.

The rapid sounds of an unfamiliar language startle her, and it isn't until much, much later that she realizes that the shrill sound of a crying baby had come from her.

II.

She is three years old when she starts to hate the color white with a passion.

It starts after a nightmare about disease, death, and suffering. The white exists everywhere, from her bedroom to the streets to her neighbors. It haunts her every living second, and she has nightmares of turning into cold, white stone.

Her parents are worried about her unnaturally restless nights. She is so young, they think, she doesn't deserve to suffer at such a young age. She's an innocent child that has a bright future ahead of her.

She knows that to be the opposite. What awaits her is a nightmare.

Her parents, who are doctors, prescribe her medicine to help with her sleep, and she finally starts to rest at night. They are dreamless, but the fear never leaves.

III.

Over the course of a year, she tries to change her future. She goes through several "phases" – some thought as silly and cute, others worrying.

She refuses to touch anything made of amber lead, which leads to starving herself and camping out in the center of her bed. Eventually, she finds her way back to the dinner table after smelling food, and her family is both relieved and bemused as she stuffs five whole servings of food into her mouth.

She dresses in nothing but winter wear. She wears thick clothing, gloves, long socks, and boots. Even if she sweats like a pig, she persists. Her brother gives her strange looks since it is the middle of spring, when Flevance's climate is fairly warm. She finally sheds all of it when summer starts.

She tries on her parents' doctor uniforms, complete with latex gloves, a mask, goggles, and a white lab coat. Her parents coo at her "dress-up" game, thinking that she's emulating them to show her desire to become a doctor. After tripping several times in a day, she decides to try something else.

She keeps her body language closed – her hands are always in pockets or she keeps them close to her chest. She avoids touching anything that resembles amber lead, and her family suspects that she has a phobia of the color white. She avoids contact with other people, and tries to stay inside as much as she can without being too suspicious.

Her mother and father thinks that she's just like her brother – quiet and shy. Her brother thinks she's being weird, but brushes it off as another one of her many quirks. Only she knows that it's because she wants to live.

IV.

She is starting her first day of school, and her mother asks her brother to escort her to her classroom. Being very high-esteemed and professional doctors, her parents constantly has patients to attend to. They still do their best to spend as much time as they could with their children, though.

Her brother agrees, and they walk together to the academy.

They meet a nun, whom her brother calls "Sister." She's never met the lady before, but she knows exactly who she is and how her story ends.

She avoids talking throughout the entire exchange, and she and her brother finally have to leave otherwise they'll be late.

"Have fun at school, Lami-chan," the nun waves, and she murmurs a little "bye" before following her brother.

She keeps a tight grip on her brother's hand for the rest of the way to school.

V.

Her first day of school is boring. It's filled with rhyming and educational games. The only actual progress she makes is learning a few more hiragana and katakana, as well as some kanji.

She had honestly expected more from a medical academy, but it was only the start of her first year. Medical lessons would probably come in later years, when the children are more educated on academic basics like writing, reading, and other necessary subjects.

When she and her brother come home, her parents ask if she has made any new friends, and she gives them an honest "no." They give her encouragement, telling her that the other kids just need more time to warm up to her.

What they don't know is that she avoids the other kids – on purpose. She doesn't speak a single unneeded word, nor does she reach out to anyone. She doesn't want to get close to people who will only disappear.

But isn't she going to disappear too?

She wonders how much of an impact she would make if she actually lives, and rethinks her plans and their outcomes.

The next day she takes time to ponder her decisions. And the next. And the next. And for a few months after that.

VI.

She starts to go outside more, and willingly touches amber lead again. Her parents are relieved; they don't want their daughter to fear such a constant in their everyday lives – even if she still hesitates when she touches the walls, or the table, or even the floor.

Her sudden change of heart, as well as their consequences, however, baffle them.

She fiddles with amber lead toys several times a day, lies down on the street a few times a week, and pokes amber lead chopsticks into her nose randomly. Her parents think it's just another silly phase, but her brother asks what's gotten into her.

"I've made up my mind," she answers.

Her brother raises an eyebrow, though she can't really see it with that hat of his in the way. "About what?"

She hums, turning a figurine around. "About stuff," she says, and he stops to look at her from his desk.

Then she jumps into a pile of toys she's laid out on the floor, making monster noises as she terrorizes "Amber Town," and he shakes his head. His sister is definitely a weird one.

VII.

Her teachers, over the years, think she's quite an oddball. They often find her playing with her pencil, doodling, or simply daydreaming, but whenever they call on her, every answer is right on the dot.

She shows little enthusiasm for lessons, yet manages to pass every test and complete all of her homework on time – the only exception being language, which she nearly fails every year. She's somehow able to defy all logic when they assign group projects, and ends up all by herself. She also still gets better grades than the rest of the students, even without help.

Her brother isn't surprised, and her parents are proud of their little "prodigies." They just wish that their children would go out and socialize a little more.

Her only and all-time favorite subject is history – more specifically, the history of the navy and piracy. Maybe piracy a little more than the navy, and she has an obvious interest in the Pirate King.

Her history teacher – who is quite strange himself – doesn't mind, and sometimes her brother finds them excitedly discussing government corruption and adventurous pirates after school.

She supposes that the man could be her first friend.

VIII.

Her brother is almost ten years old.

She loves her family, and she feels guilty for worrying them so much, but she needed a little flare to her new life before it was gone. Maybe after everything is over, she would tell her parents the truth. She wonders how shocked they would be.

She still doesn't like the color white, though not with as much hatred as her earlier years. In fact, she had despised the color so much that she would refuse to touch anything white. From stuffed animals to books to her own socks, she wouldn't even poke it with a meter-long stick.

So it surprises her brother when she asks him for his hat.

"What?"

"I want to try on your hat."

"…Why?" he asks, handing over the hat.

She plops it on her head, pulling the edges over her face, and murmurs, "…I like your hat."

Her expression looks a little weird, but then she runs away with a michievious grin on her face and his hat, calling out, "Try to catch me!"

After an hour-long chase, he decides that his sister is just so weird that she doesn't like to make sense.

IX.

Amber lead disease is excruciatingly painful.

Her skin starts to turn white, and she's forced to stay in bed all day. She can hardly stand up on her own, and her parents have to spoon feed her every meal.

And, god forbid, her previously perfect attendance for school is now ruined.

If she has to put it into words, she would say that it feels like her body is turning into stone from the inside out. Moving feels like she's forcing a twig to bend in ways it never should. Every single shift makes her feel like she's breaking herself into pieces. All she does nowadays is sleep, groan, get force fed, lay waste onto her new bed, talk to her brother, and wonder when the end is coming.

Her big brother, the kind and wonderful person he is, skips studying and homework every day to talk and watch over her.

But she knows shit is going down when she hears gunfire and explosions from outside.

"Hey, Law-nii," she says slowly when she hears her brother enter the room. "Sounds like… a big party's going on outside."

He smiles. "Didn't you hear? They're calling it the Best Party Ever. There's free food, fireworks, games and dancing everywhere; everyone's having a blast! But father is going to cure you first so that we can all go together."

"Nah, I'd rather… not go. I don't think they would appreciate it… if I did my chopstick dance."

"Your dance is just too good for— …" He pauses suddenly, turning towards the door.

"What's wrong?" She knows exactly what's wrong.

He turns back with an entirely too fake smile. "It sounds like a lot of people passed out from partying too much, and they need the room." He starts to pull her out of bed, and she does her best to help him as he carries her on his back. Her body is practically screaming in pain, and her brother moves her around more carefully when she moans. "I'll take you somewhere else for the time being."

She silently mourns the death of her second parents as her brother takes her away.

He brings her to their parents' room and hides her in the closet. Her brother isn't very inconspicuous, and she's smart enough that she would have been seriously suspicious if she didn't know what was going on. Fortunately for him, she knows enough to follow along with his story.

"Stay in here for a little bit, Lami," he tells her. "Mother and father will treat the patients quickly so that you can have your room back."

Before he closes the door, she calls out, "Law-nii?"

Trying his best to look calm, he says, "Yes, Lami?"

She wants to say a lot of things. She wants him to bring her with him. She wants them to run away. She really, really doesn't want to die again.

Instead, she grimace-smiles and says, "Love you, onii-san."

He hesitantly shuts the closet door with one last, "Love you too, Lami."

…

After nearly an hour or more later, fire starts to enter the room. Her eyes close for the last time to the sound of chaos and cries of her name.

X-Tora.

"Tra-guy, Tra-guy!"

"…What do you want now, Straw Hat-ya?" He really, really did not want to deal with him right now.

"Can I try on your hat?" The rubber boy was practically grinning himself to death. When he died via overdose of smiles, the idiotic captain would only have himself to blame.

"No."

"Awwww, come on! You can wear mine!" That piqued his interest, if only a little bit. Usually the straw hat captain didn't let anyone else touch it, but Law wasn't going to give in so easily.

"I already said no."

"Come ooooon," Luffy whined, reaching for his hat, "let's trade for today!"

His body went on autopilot, smacking the other D's hand away with stunning menace. There was an awkward silence as he and Luffy processed what he just did.

"Oh, I get it!" Luffy said, palming his fist.

Law raised an eyebrow. "And what exactly do you get?"

"That hat's your treasure, right?" the straw-hatted captain stated with confidence, and he nearly stiffens. He just manages to stop his body from twitching.

"…I like your hat."

The nostalgic voice resounds in his head like a tape on broken replay. The image of her wearing the old, full-rimmed and furry hat. The strangely melancholic tone of her voice. When he closes his eyes to calm himself, he can see everything again like it was yesterday. Blankly, he wonders if his sister would laugh at him for reacting so terribly to a such simple question.

Sighing, he stands up. "I'm going to check on Caesar."

"Wha—? But what about our trade? Tra-guy? Tra-guyyyyyyy!"

Author's Notes:

Yes, my entire purpose for creating this fic, putting it into ten parts, and using roman numerals was all for that stupid pun near the end! Beware my brilliance! Mwahahahaha!

But seriously, this was just a little sad idea I had as a SI as Lami. The basic idea is that just because you're reborn as a canon character, it doesn't mean that you will change the story line.

In regards to this Lami's thought processes though, in her earlier years she thrives to survive long enough so that she can live on with Law. However, during the story she reconsiders the consequences of this plan and decides to not change canon. The premise behind her first death that I decided not to mention in the story was that she had already accepted death, so she allows herself to die again. She also realizes the importance of original!Lami's death for Law's character growth – which isn't explicitly stated, since I wanted to keep the writing style simple and more dependent on the reader's viewpoint in order to figure out her thought process. (But I caved in and explained it here anyways XD)

(Also, I'm totally copying XxZuiliu's A/N format. Forgive me, Zuiliu-sama!)

QUESTIONS: Which part(s) impacted you the most emotionally? Which part(s) are your favorite and least favorite, and why? What did you think of Lami? If I were to write an AU where she lives instead, would you be interested?

Please leave a review and tell me your opinion c:

Have a splendid day!

~Kana-chan