It's Saki's birthday!
Let's get started one last time.
41. Inked on Skin
(It's always darker just before the dawn)
"How's the barrier coming along?"
Bartolomeo crossed his fingers and closed his eyes. Saki stared expectantly.
"No dice."
"Damn." She had hoped that the show Zoro had just put on had reenergized him, but things couldn't be that easy, could they? Was it impossible to have one thing go smoothly that day?
At least the view was nice. She wished she could have drawn it, she was tired, and there was so much going on in town that she didn't count on being able to remember any of the details. Or more like, she couldn't be arsed to.
"Been wondering for a while," Bartolomeo said, interrupting her thoughts. "You have any idea what's that bubble around the whole plateau?"
She looked up. Its origin, same as the cage, seemed to be in the palace.
"It's Law's Room. I've never seen one that big, though." It was also the reason that she wasn't freaking out over being stuck on the third level of the plateau, because she had visible proof that he hadn't gone and killed himself. Yet. The jackass. "He's not gonna be able to stand up after—Hey, is it me, or are those strings moving?"
Bartolomeo squinted at the sky, but then had the idea to turn around to see what was going on behind them. "Holy shit!"
"What, what's—" Saki said, turning around as well and shutting up at the sight of the bars of the cage advancing inland and slicing buildings like they were butter. "Oh no. Oh shit. What are they doing, why's it taking so long to take out one guy?!"
"Why're you getting mad at me?!"
"How hard can it be to summon a ladder?!"
"You do it if it's so easy!"
"If I could—Wait, did the Room go away?"
Saki felt her heart sink the moment she realized it wasn't there. It didn't have to mean anything, but what if—
A sudden, nostalgic blast of energy originating at the top of the plateau washed over them, enough to make Saki's breath hitch and turn her head to the castle. Conqueror's haki, stronger than she had ever sensed it, even in Marineford, but still reminiscent of the first time she'd felt it, in Sabaody's auction, what seemed a lifetime ago. When had things go so astray for them?
Barely a minute later there was an enormous explosion that made the plateau tremble and created a smoke cloud that rose along with flames. If Gladius' explosions had smelled of gunpowder, this one was like burning fuel. And then…
Something seemed to come out of the black cloud, flying through the air to land on the Sunflower Field, and immediately after, Cavendish's head popped up over the edge of the next level, yelling at Bartolomeo to make some stairs.
"Who do you think you are to order me around?!"
"Robin's up there too, she needs to get here!" Saki said in a brilliant moment of panic, grabbing him by the shoulders, because that was all Bartolomeo needed to give it another try.
The set of stairs appeared.
She had to resist the urge to shake him silly in case it vanished again. "Are you sure you couldn't have done this earlier?!"
He didn't reply to Saki, mesmerized by what was going on above, and a moment later, Rebecca, Mr. Soldier, and Robin, wearing Cavendish's coat, came running down. Leo and another small girl were with them, too. Was that the Tontatta princess? She was so cute.
"Where's Cabbage now?" Bartolomeo asked.
"Saki!" Robin was skipping steps to get to her faster, "Traffy is up there with Cavendish! He says he wants to—"
"That bastard!" Huffed Saki, running towards the stairs and making her way up before Robin could finish.
"—watch Luffy's fight." Robin smiled as Saki passed her. "He's alive."
"He's alive," she repeated, sounding relieved without meaning to.
Even if Saki had spent the last three years of her life running, she felt like she had never done so as fast as then, and at the same time, she'd never wished so hard she could go even faster.
The stairs didn't seem to end, but at long last, she reached firm ground. Dressrosa's royal palace stood in the middle of a field of sunflowers that covered most of the level. Walls and towers were torn down, and Luffy was at the top of it all, attacking Doflamingo.
It took her a few seconds to find the spot where Cavendish was sitting among the flowers, a small clearing near the edge of the field, but when she did, she bolted in that direction, completely ignoring Cavendish, who'd pulled a rose out of nowhere and started posing the moment he noticed her.
—
Since the Polar Tang was made of metal, sounds had a tendency to reverberate in it. It didn't matter that some parts were covered in wood or that there was furniture muffling the echo; in many places it didn't go away, and especially at night, when there was only the sound of the engine or the waves in the background, it was easy to pick out the steps of anybody moving nearby. The submarine had been his home for so long that he could distinguish every member of his crew by the sound of their steps.
That was why, when Law heard a familiar cadence of steps that running towards him and Cavendish, he chalked it up to being just another one of his mind's tricks, intent on reminding him at every possible how much he missed his friends. It just so happened that the person approaching was wearing heels, so he assumed it was Nico-ya again. Only, when he turned his head to see her – moving from his spot on the ground wasn't a priority at the moment, he could take any further bad news lying down – it wasn't who he had expected, but rather, who his gut feeling had told him it was from the beginning.
"What—" He said, blinking repeatedly in case he was imagining things. It wouldn't have been strange with the beating he had taken and all the blood loss.
"Law!"
Fantastic, now he was hearing things too.
Though he started to doubt his hallucinations when Saki pushed Cavendish aside to keep running in a straight line at him. The dust she kicked up when she skidded as she came to a sudden halt was very real, though, and so was Law's cough when he swallowed it.
She dropped on her knees next to him, looking scared. "Law!"
How long had it been since someone who didn't want to kill him called him by that name?
He tried to form a coherent sentence to no avail. This may have been the last thing his brain needed to break for real. "You—you're here—how—?"
If he still had any lingering doubts whether she was real or not, they were dispelled the instant she started to lay into him. She had to be the real one. The Saki summoned by his guilty conscience was either sad or way, way nicer.
"What are you doing here alone?!" Was the first thing she said when she ascertained he was conscious, and also the friendliest. "Are you mad?! Who do you think you are to leave everybody else behind?!" She was getting increasingly angry as she went. "Who do you think you are to kick me out of my home?!"
"I—didn't want to—"
She grabbed his hat and started slapping him over the head with it, punctuating her statements with it. "You! Went! On a suicide mission! Alone! You! Sent! Me! Away! From my family! And then came here to die! You jackass!" She put more force into that slap. "I'm never going to forgive you!"
On second thought, maybe Law had been wrong about the not wanting to kill him part, but he didn't even mind the abuse. She was at the same time the last and first person he'd have wanted to run into in Dressrosa, but at that time, he was honestly relieved to see her there.
She stopped hitting him for a second and he thought the assault was over, but her baffled face and silence suggested that he'd jumped out of the frying pan and into the flames.
"What happened to your arm?!"
"It's nothing," he started, regaining his speaking ability, "the Tontattas already reatta—"
"You lost an arm?!"
Sensing a hat slapping coming down again, he made an effort to sit up and stop her with the arm he could move, noticing the distinctive line pattern on her forearms when he bragged one of it.
"When did you—Did Doflamingo attack you?!"
She frowned, mouth still open, and he realized he had chosen the wrong thing to say, although, to be fair, there was probably nothing he could say to not fuck up harder and the dizziness wasn't making it any easier.
"You're—you're unbelievable," she said, shaking her head. "Do you have any idea how worried I've been about you?! How did you ever think this was a good idea?!"
He never did. That was the entire point. That was why he had left everybody behind. And saying it was obviously a terrible idea, so he didn't answer, and he flinched a little, waiting the next inevitable whack with the hat.
But it didn't come.
Saki stared at him like she was willing him to catch on fire, a million contradicting emotions in her eyes, and leaned forward until their lips met.
He hadn't expected that. And he had no idea what possessed her to do it, but the one thing he knew was that he didn't deserve it. He leaned in anyway, refusing to let escape the only good thing that had happened to him that day (week, month, months?), holding onto her arm like his life depended on it, carving into his memory the feeling of her lips and the faint gasp that left her when he deepened the kiss. He had missed her so much.
He paid no mind to the person forcefully clearing his throat somewhere in the background, but after it happened twice, Saki broke the kiss and whipped her head towards Cavendish. Law caught the faint scent of citrus, still clinging to the fluffy, fiery halo that was her hair even after what she'd gone through that day. We she'd had to put up with because of him, he chided himself with guilt that was not going away.
"What, you don't have anything else to pay attention to?" She shot at Cavendish.
He rolled his eyes, turning away with a huff to look at the palace. "How uncouth."
She had never been the type to be quiet or embarrassed.
Saki just glared at the back of his neck with extreme disapproval before looking at Law again.
It wasn't just the cuts on her arms. She had scrapes all over her body, her knees were bloody and she was caked in as much dirt as him or more.
And when she had turned around to yell at Cavendish, Law had seen on her back his own Jolly Roger, grinning at him with Cora's smile. He would have wondered if he was watching from above and laughing at him, had he been a spiritual person.
"Are you okay?" She asked him. It was like her anger had vanished, but just to be safe, he assumed she had only put it in the back burner. "Shouldn't you be lying down?"
Knowingly or not, her arrival and concern had disarmed him. And for a change, Law felt like dropping all pretenses and being sincere. It was his stubbornness to keep important things to himself that had landed him in this situation, and what good had it done, in the end?
But even though that was all true, he wasn't thinking clearly enough to follow that train of thought to its logical conclusion and just apologize for being shitty to her. Instead, it was more accurate to say that his brain to mind filter abandoned him for the moment it took him to say, "You're a sight for sore eyes."
Saki's eyes widened and her face turned red like her hair. "How hard did you hit your head back there?" Somehow, she was still able to sound annoyed with him – there was the anger – as she put his hat back on his head with more force than necessary, and she pushed him back gently, with a hand on his chest and the other on his back. "Rest while you can. This isn't over."
He did, for once, as asked without complaining, and when Saki sat down next to him, they looked for each other's hand as they watched the fight unfold in the sky, fingers laced, hoping Straw Hat would be able to pull off just one more miracle.
—
Doflamingo was launched into town from an impact, and it took a moment for Saki to realize that the big, round person coated in haki that crossed the air after him was Luffy, stepping on air to gather more momentum, like some Marines could.
"Where's he…?" Law tried to sit up again, and Saki immediately put a hand on his back for support. He could barely move in the state his was in, but he was still awake and sound of mind. It honestly hurt to see him at his limit and unable to rest. Not yet.
"He was launched to the other plateau."
"Why does he look like that?! Did you see that?!" Cavendish said. "Is that Straw Hat?! He's become a lot stronger!"
"So he's got something like that up his sleeve, huh… But he's using too much haki…"
"He'll definitely win if he can keep it up, though…" Saki commented.
The public address system installed on the streets, or what was left of it, made a grating sound, and then a voice came from it. It was the old man that had been at the King's Plateau with Viola.
The transmission was filled with static, but the words were still clear. He was the former king of Dressrosa, explaining what had happened and encouraging his former subjects to resist for a few more minutes. Saki, who had not had a lot of time to reflect upon what was going on yet, realized that she may have only had a part of the whole story, but the citizens of Dressrosa had had this disaster dropped upon them out of the blue.
Luffy punched and kicked Doflamingo relentlessly, tossing him around like he was a ragdoll, no matter how much he tried to counterattack. Buildings turned to string as they shot towards Luffy's body, but they bounced off him like nothing, and he moved with the speed of a bullet until one last attack sent Doflamingo against the base of the new plateau, where he stayed immobile.
The entirety of Dressrosa held its breath as they waited for Doflamingo to step forward.
"What destructive power!" Cavendish exclaimed, peeking over the edge of the Sunflower Field. "There's no way he can still be alive!"
With a tired huff, Law replied, "Look up above us."
Saki did, and it was enough to make disappear all traces of budding optimism.
"The birdcage hadn't disappeared yet." Doflamingo hadn't even lost consciousness. After a pause, Law added in a lower tone, "He's going to need help."
As if on cue, Luffy launched himself towards Doflamingo for one last attack, but he deflated mid-way and fell into the town. As that happened, someone came bouncing from the palace, jumping down so fast that Saki barely caught sight of Burgess' ugly face. Funny how he seemed a trivial concern at most, given the situation.
Cavendish said out loud what everybody was thinking. "Jesus Burgess! Why was he in the palace?!"
He was heading straight to Luffy, and as Doflamingo, too, started to move, the people around Luffy scattered to avoid getting caught in the fight. All, except one man who went to his rescue.
Doflamingo slowly lowered himself towards the town, pink feathers moving with the wind as he made his descent, casting the most ominous figure Saki had seen in her life. The birdcage, the destruction, the sheer terror he inspired in the people who just hours ago had been singing his praises, the total absence of remorse or empathy for those he had decided to discard. Joker had been a malignant but distant presence for a good part of Saki's life, but he was now a reality in front of her eyes. The full weight that everything that had happened in Asteria, to her family, was ultimately that man's fault hit her, and suddenly sitting there to watch fate unfold wasn't enough. If there was something, anything she could do to stop him, she had to. She owed it to all the people who'd given up everything to keep her and the kids safe. She owed—
Her mind went blank at the realization.
That was how Law had felt all along, wasn't it?
Quietly, she sighed. Saki knew what Law wanted to do, even if he hadn't said it, and it was best that he didn't waste any unnecessary energy on explanations. "Your call," she said, picking up Kikoku – would she get cursed for touching it and doom them to failure, or would it make an exception in these circumstances, she wondered? – and holding onto him tighter.
To someone else it may have looked effortless, but she saw the incipient Room swirling around his fingertips and how it was struggling to gain enough consistency to create a sphere that was, usually, nearly instantaneous.
Once it was done, though, their surroundings changed in the blink of an eye, the Sunflower Field left behind for the terrace of a random building near the confrontation, right in time to see how Burgess tried to jump Luffy but got intercepted by Sabo, and Saki couldn't help the grin that spread on her face at his sudden appearance. As long as Sabo was on the case, that was one less problem to deal with.
The man that carried Luffy – the Colosseum announcer, she realized, now that she saw him from closer up – ran away with him, and many of the tournament fighters went after Doflamingo.
"They're trying to buy him time?" She said.
"He's run out of haki. If he gets it back fast enough, we can still survive."
They had to be careful where they moved, though, because Doflamingo started rampaging through town, and if he saw them or the floor under them turned to string, they'd be done for.
"Come on out, Straw Hat!" He yelled. "I'll show you what regret looks like!"
The birdcage started shrinking faster, and at a distance, more of the warriors of the Colosseum appeared to join the fight. Some sort of luminous droplets started to fall from the sky, but Saki wasn't able to see what they were, because the Colosseum announcer ran near them then, and Law summoned his Room once again to intercept him.
They landed in the middle of the street with a thud because the Room wasn't wide enough to touch the ground, but fortunately far enough from Doflamingo to go unseen, and the announcer and the people flanking him stopped in their tracks when they saw Law.
Shichibukai, they called him. Oh, if only they knew.
"Aren't you guys running a little too far?" Law asked the announcer. "How long till his haki returns?"
His severed arm was bleeding again, and Saki wondered how long would it be until he passed out.
"Uuh… He told me ten minutes… So about three minutes and twenty seconds more, tops!"
"It's a race against time, then…" He took a deep breath. "Leave the rest to me."
They were all too willing to dump Luffy on someone else, not that Saki could blame them. She ran to the announcer to help get Luffy from his back and carried him to where Law was sitting, and he immediately teleported them to another terrace that offered a better view of the central street.
It was in ruins, a shadow of what Saki had first seen hours ago. And in the middle of the street, Viola had gone to confront Doflamingo.
"That woman… She was with Straw Hat when he came to rescue me at the palace."
"She's from Dressrosa's old royal family, I think. And that girl with the pink hair is the princess."
"They're going to get killed at this rate."
Saki glanced at Luffy, on the ground next to them, so beaten up and exhausted that he wasn't even twitching. "One minute," she mumbled. "I could—"
"Don't."
"But he's going to—"
"Worry about yourself for a change. Do you want to die?" She was ready to retort when he said in a much softer tone, "Please."
It was unfair that after what he had done he could convince her just like that. "We'll all be dead in a minute if he doesn't get up, anyway," she admitted.
"Yeah." He glanced at Luffy. "We'll have our answer soon."
The birdcage, now advancing with difficulty, had started to bite into the King's Plateau, with most of Dressrosa's abled inhabitants now helping to push back against it. Doflamingo was still distracted with Viola, who was putting up as good of a fight against him as possible, but wasn't getting anywhere. With a few strings, he immobilized Viola and took control of the princess' body.
"RIGHT EVERYBODY!" A voice shouted through the speakers. "JUST A LITTLE MORE PATIENCE!"
"What the hell…?" Mumbled Law.
She immediately identified it from the matches she had watched earier. "It's the Colosseum announcer."
Luffy stirred, catching their attention.
Saki hurried to his side. "Luffy!" She patted his face, and he opened his eyes groggily. "Are you with us?"
"Huh? You're Traffy's friend…?"
"—THE STAR IS REBORN!"
"Straw Hat, how long?"
"Just a few seconds…"
The announcer prattled on through the PA system. Saki supposed it was good for morale, but the guy was just making her very nervous, and it sure as hell wasn't helping the girl crying out for help that was about to skewer one of her family members against her will.
He started a countdown from ten, and the crowd joined in. Nine, eight, seven, six, five…
Luffy started to rise.
Four, three…
Law summoned a Room.
Two.
A tendril of Doflamingo's strings stabbed the Colosseum announcer.
One.
Princess Rebeca slashed at Viola.
Zero.
Viola appeared next to Saki, switched with Luffy, and Saki stumbled to catch her in the air before both crashed against the debris on the terrace.
Luffy had stopped Rebecca's incoming attack and was ready to resume the fight with Doflamingo, and Law swapped out Rebecca, too, when Doflamingo tried to attack her as well. Saki hadn't been expecting that and Viola was still on top of her, so she didn't get to her in time. Viola ran to Rebecca's help as Doflamingo turned his attention towards them, realizing where they were.
Saki tensed up, ready to fight back if he approached, but he made no attempts to go after them. Instead, he transformed the town around him into string, and Luffy kept receiving attack after attack.
He inflated himself again, breaking free of Doflamingo's strings, and jumped high into the air.
Doflamingo followed without hesitation, set on sentencing the fight once and for all. He extended a web over him as Luffy fell towards him flinging a giant fist coated in haki, and from the web, several strings shot up to pierce Luffy.
They collided with his fist, breaking as they came in contact with it.
As did the web.
Doflamingo took the punch straight in the face, and this time, he fell at such speed that the ground wasn't enough to stop him. It broke, and he kept falling down until he hit the bottom of the underground port.
Seconds seemed to stretch like Luffy's limbs as they watched and waited for Doflamingo to reemerge.
Law summoned one last giant Room to swap Luffy, deflated and freefalling, with a piece of rubble, and he landed right behind Rebecca, who went to take care of him right away.
It was the announcer who broke the tense silence that had engulfed the island. "LOOK AT THE SKY, DRESSROSA!"
He had survived. It was one miracle after another with these people, wasn't it? It had to be, because, when she looked up, she saw the birdcage coming down.
Law was staring in quietly at the ruins of the city, where Doflamingo had fallen, with a blank expression. What he had been after for years was done. Saki wanted to say something, but she felt it was out of place. She was sure he had a lot to think about now, and nothing she could say would make it better.
But she could at least sit next to him while they waited for help to arrive and place a hand on his back to remind him that he was not alone, as much as he tried to convince himself of the opposite.
It may have been her imagination, but she thought she felt his shoulders relax under her touch.
—
They went to Mr. Soldier's old home – no, Kyros, Saki corrected herself – to tend to their wounds and avoid the Marines. There weren't a whole lot of places left in Dressrosa where one could hide; most buildings were destroyed or about to fall down, and the royal palace had become a makeshift refugee camp. With an Admiral around looking for them, they couldn't stay there, no matter how much Princess Rebecca insisted on repaying them.
When it came to Law, Luffy, Usopp, and that Bellamy that Saki automatically didn't like because he had a shitty tattoo of Doflamingo's Jolly Roger and she wasn't sure which one of the two offenses was more disgusting, it was hard to find the person under the wounds. The last time she'd seen someone in such a bad state was when they picked up Luffy at the War of the Best, and – oh, that was a thing with him, wasn't it? That explained why his companions didn't look the slightest bit worried for him and Usopp. Saki didn't know what kind of lives they led, decided she wanted no part in them, and then realized she was probably screwed if the alliance was still a thing.
Law kept himself awake long enough to take a cursory glance at people's injuries, bark a few orders, and collapse. By the time they were done fixing his wounds, he was a mummy from neck down.
On the other hand and against all logic, Zoro, who had fought against a literal mountain of a man, looked completely unscathed and happy to simply chug down any alcoholic beverage he could get his hands on. Saki was about to warn him that it was a bad idea to drink when you were injured, but then again, there didn't seem to be a single wound on him. Life wasn't fair.
They were settled in for the night when visitors arrived.
Tsubaki zeroed in on Saki and ran towards her to give her a tackle hug, and Saki got ready for the impact, but Sabo, the little shit, tossed a bag on her lap before Tsubaki was able to reach Saki, and the combined weight of personal effects and little sister, who was still bigger than her, the traitor, was enough to knock her flat on her back.
Everything hurt so much she didn't make an attempt to move.
"I brought your things!" Sabo said happily.
Saki had enough energy to pinch Tsubaki's cheek and pull. "So I see."
"That huuurts—"
"Hush, there are people sleeping."
Sabo made his way to Luffy, careful not to step on anybody, and sat on the bed, next to him and Usopp, as Tsubaki let go of her sister and Saki was able to sit again.
"He's grown up so much," Sabo said.
"Aren't you one of the leaders of the Revolutionary Army?" Zoro asked. "How do you know Luffy?"
"I'm his older brother!"
Franky freaked out and Zoro did a spit-take that landed on a sleeping Bellamy. Saki smiled.
"Wasn't Ace his brother?"
"We're all sworn brothers! Though I haven't seen Luffy since we were kids. Tsu, are you ready?"
Tsubaki jumped a little when she was addressed, but she gave a quick hug to Saki and stood up before her sister could return it. "Yup!" She glanced tentatively at Law, and then at her. "Can I step on his face?"
Saki considered it for a fraction of a second. "Maybe next time."
Tsubaki glared at her with disappointment. "You've gone soft."
"You're leaving already?" Robin asked.
"CP-0's coming back here and we're the target, so…" Then Sabo looked at Saki with a grin. "You watch your back too! I don't want to read on the news you've been caught."
"On one condition! You watch her back while I'm not around."
He chuckled. "That's my day job anyway."
"Hey!"
"Thanks. Say bye to the others for me?"
"Of course!" And then he turned to the Straw Hats. "You guys ought to get out of here as soon as possible, too."
There was a small lull in the conversation. Too much action in one day, perhaps. It would take a few more hours of sleep and two awake captains for the idea of moving out not to be so daunting.
"To think he had another brother aside from Ace…" Zoro said.
"Exactly, this was a shocker," Franky replied.
Sabo smiled with a hint of sadness. "Luffy's probably the one that's shocked the most."
"Huh?"
"I've let him believe that I was dead this whole time."
Sabo explained his story. How he had an accident at sea and lost his memory. How the Revolutionary Army took him in, and the traumatic way in which he regained his memory. Saki had heard before from him, as had Robin, but it came as a total surprise to Zoro and Franky. She supposed Luffy never talked about Sabo, and she could sympathize. Some things could be too painful to put into words.
"Alright, time to go!" He said, standing up, and patting Tsubaki's head. She stepped away from him, but her hair was already sticking up.
"Don't you want to talk to Luffy?" Robin asked.
"I got to see him anyway. Oh, yeah!" He pulled out a piece of paper and gave it to Zoro. "I made a Vivre Card for Luffy…"
"Wow, when did that happen…?"
"…and I'll take one corner with me."
Facing the rest of the Straw Hats, Sabo said, "Well, Luffy might be quite a handful, but take good care of him, won't you?"
At the same time, Tsubaki took one last look at Saki and said, "If anything happens to you, I'll hunt him."
"Not if I do it first," she replied. "Go kick ass."
"Yeah!"
They both left the house, and soon, the only sign that they had been there at all was a flock of crows soaring through the night sky.
—
Law woke up before Luffy, but he still slept for days. Two anxiety-inducing days during which Saki kept looking at Law's right arm in case it turned blue or something. Robin told her not to worry, because they'd notice if the surgery had gone wrong the moment they smelled the rot. Saki didn't think this was one of her funniest moments, but Franky seemed to disagree.
It was a sunny morning in Carta Hill. Saki had been stretching her legs outside, and she already felt much better, stiff muscles aside. The string cuts were healing nicely, and though she still looked like she'd been run over by a rock hippo, the only bandages remaining were those around her knees. She went back into the house just to grab her bottle of sunscreen when she saw Law awake and sitting against the wall, changing the bandages on his arm.
Luffy was still snoring.
Law and Saki looked at each other in awkward silence, and when it was clear that neither of them was going to break it, Saki turned around and to find a tree to sit under away from him.
"Wait!"
She was torn between going out anyway to spite him and avoid for a little bit longer an inevitable, uncomfortable conversation, or actually doing as asked, and what persuaded her to do the latter was the panicky tone in which he made the request.
Still silent, she walked up to him and sat by his side, hugging her legs to her chest and regarding him skeptically.
"You're still here," he said, like he couldn't believe it.
She replied to the unspoken question that hung in the air with another. "Did you think I was going to leave?"
He looked away from her, though there wasn't much emotion on his face. It reminded Saki of the day she had told her to leave. She wanted to grab him by the shoulders and shake some sense into him, but that would probably be bad for the arm. She'd keep it as a last resort.
"I don't know." He replied hesitantly. "I wouldn't have blamed you."
"You think I should've left with Tsubaki. You think you deserved it."
He didn't try to deny it.
"And you're not wrong," she said with a sigh.
"You've seen what kind of person I am." There was a dismissive edge to his voice that grated on Saki's nerves. "You should stop wasting your time on me."
"I love you!" She replied, astonished by how thickheaded he was being, and he looked at her like she had grown a second head. "Did you have to make me say it? You can't seriously think I'd ditch you, alone and injured! I never wanted to leave your side in the first place! Will you pull your head out of your ass for a second and see that there are people who care about you?"
A long silence fell as they stared at each other in disbelief.
"I'm sorry."
Her eyes narrowed. "You're not." Law started to say in his defense, but she continued. "You're not sorry at all. Tell me you wouldn't do this all over again the way you did if you went back in time."
He had the grace to look embarrassed when he amended his words. "…I'm sorry I hurt you."
Saki was disappointed and judging him hard. "So you're that type."
"What do you mean?"
"The type that says 'I'm sorry' when someone confesses. How deep does that self-hate go?"
He became alarmed when he realized what he had said. "No, I didn't mean—Fuck, I—"
As funny as it was seeing him struggle, she decided to intervene before he choked on his own embarrassment. "You don't have to say anything. I know you. I get it."
He let out a sigh of relief when he realized she was letting go of his latest gross social misstep. "Thank you."
She reached for his face, cupping a cheek with her hand and smoothing out a band aid on his face that was starting to peel off. It was just an excuse to touch him. "Don't you think it's about time you came clean?"
"Yeah," he admitted with refreshing sincerity. "You're right."
He let out a sharp breath, settling against the wall, and looking away from her again, but this time he wasn't trying to keep emotion it. He closed his eyes for a second, and when he opened them again, it was like he was looking at a place far, far away from the little house on the hill.
"Remember what I told you about Cora?"
"Yeah." Doflamingo's brother, and the man Law felt indebted to.
"The Amber Lead was supposed to kill me at thirteen. I was living with the Donquixote Family by then. And one day, he decided to kidnap me and drag me all over the North Blue to find a doctor who could treat me. No matter how many times we got refused, he never gave up. Even if I had." He paused for a moment. "Maybe because I had. I don't know. I have an idea, but I don't really understand what got into him to do that."
"He cared about you," she replied. It was the simplest explanation. "What other reason could there be?"
Law looked at her like he was really struggling to grasp the concept.
"We just talked about this." She sounded a little desperate. She also wanted to tell him that he couldn't possibly be this dense, but she knew full well he could.
He tilted his head, as if conceding the point, but not entirely convinced. "Anyway, one day he learned through his brother about an exchange for a Devil Fruit the Marines had set up. It was for the Ope Ope Fruit. Doflamingo wanted it, and he was going to raid the base of the pirates who had it before the Marines could get there."
"You stole it from Doflamingo?"
He shook his head. "Cora… decided to steal it before anybody else arrived. He had been a Marine all along. He infiltrated the Donquixote Family, and by running away with me and stealing the fruit he betrayed both Doflamingo and his superiors. He gave me the fruit so I could remove the Amber Lead from my own body."
Dreading the answer, she asked, "What happened to him?"
"Doflamingo found out. Cora made sure I could escape, but Doflamingo killed him."
She didn't say anything, letting the story sink in. She had known from the beginning there wasn't a happy ending to it.
"Cora's goal was to bring Doflamingo to justice, and it's my fault he wasn't able to," Law continued, sounding more sure of himself, more like he always was. "So what I did here— Yeah, you're right. I wouldn't change a thing. He would have wanted me to do this in his stead."
"And what about you?"
"Me?" He replied, confused. Like he hadn't been a factor in the equation at any point.
"Yeah, you. How do you feel, now that it's done?"
"That's…" He let out a long breath through his nose. There probably wasn't a way to put it in words. "What you told me years ago… I think you were right. I'm not sure what to do with myself now."
"Are you not satisfied?"
"I don't know."
Careful not to put her weight on his injuries, she leaned towards him and wrapped an arm around him in a way that she hoped was comforting, resting her head on his shoulder.
His breath tickled her ear when he spoke. "What do you do when everything you've lived for is over?"
"Find something else," she suggested. "There's always a reason to keep going."
His answer was a deep intake of breath and the soft rhythm of his heartbeat. He seemed content with that. Perhaps it had gotten through his thick skull and she had given him something to ponder.
After a while, Saki said, "There's something I don't get. Why do you think he would have wanted you to do this? He doesn't sound like the kind of person who'd want you to put yourself at risk."
"Cora was kind. Too much. Taking down Doflamingo without sacrifice was impossible."
That wasn't even a halfway decent answer. Saki sighed against the crook of his neck, and he stiffened. Ticklish? "Well, you're still here."
Why hearts, she'd asked him once, a reply to a question she didn't want to answer, and that, in turn, also went unanswered. It was hard to blame him for his silence, though. Now that she knew the truth, she couldn't possibly imagine Law saying it back then. Not without three years' worth of knowing each other and too many life or death situations to count. How did you tell a stranger that your devotion to a dead man was so strong that you had decided wear it on your limbs, back and chest, and raise it as your personal flag for the world to see? A lifelong secret hidden in plain view for those who knew how to interpret the signs. She wondered if Doflamingo had gotten the message as soon as Law started making headlines.
He put his good arm around Saki's waist and let it linger there for a moment before running his hand up her back and resting it right where her Jolly Roger tattoo was. "I have trouble believing it."
"Me too. When I saw you get shot in front of the Colosseum I thought you were done for."
From the way his entire body tensed up to immediately collapse back against the wall, he'd probably tried to sit straight on reflex and regretted it. "You were there?!"
"Sure I was, passed-out boy."
There was a pause. "I really fucked up this time, didn't I?"
"On so many levels you deserve a medal."
He groaned.
"But hey, all's well that ends well! Now we just have to go back to Bepo and the others." After a beat, she added. "If I'm still allowed in the Polar Tang, that is."
"You're never going to let me live it down, are you?"
"No."
He shifted a little to plant a kiss on her temple, and whispered, "Let's go home together."
—
The same day Luffy woke up, Bartolomeo barged into the house to announce that the Marines were on the move, and not only was Admiral Fujitora still there, but Vice Admiral Tsuru and former Fleet Admiral Sengoku had arrived too.
Fortunately, their escape route was set, and their allies had managed to secure them a ship.
Unfortunately, when they got the hell out of dodge from Kyros' house, Luffy decided to stay behind for a while to do something, and Law had plans other than running to the port where the ship was waiting for them.
"You can't be serious," Saki said, despite knowing perfectly well that he, indeed, was.
"I need to find him," he replied. "There's one more thing I need to know."
They were nearing the eastern port when they split from the main group, and whatever Luffy was up to, it had played in their favor, because the citizens of Dressrosa were in a panic looking for him and their princess. There was a conspicuous lack of shooting in a town overrun by Marines, and Saki didn't know what to make of it, but she wasn't going to question her luck.
They found Sengoku sitting on a fallen wall, in the ruins of the city, watching the action unfold like it was a show – and probably it was to him, now that he was retired and the operation was someone else's headache.
Law advanced towards him and Saki stayed behind, more or less hidden by the debris to keep watch in case anybody else approached them. She wasn't hiding from Sengoku, of course. He'd been watching them get closer to him for a while, now.
"Talk," Law said. No explanations. There was a story between them, and Sengoku already knew what was being demanded of him.
"A soldier died a while back…" He started, and Saki felt especially hard that she wasn't meant to be there, but there was no way she would have let Law run off alone in his state. "He was special to me. He believed in justice more than the average man, and was a very trustworthy subordinate. In all his life, he only lied to me once. He betrayed me… but I'm sure he had his reasons." He paused. "We lost four things that day… The Barrels Pirates, the life of my subordinate, the Ope Ope Fruit, and the boy with the Amber Lead syndrome that was with the Donquixote Family at the time."
"Yeah. That was me."
Law explained the same he had told Saki days before. It was clear by the pain in his voice that it didn't get any easier, no matter how many times he told the story, but he kept his cool until Sengoku pressed him to talk about Cora's death.
"Fine!" He exploded. "We were supposed to escape together! He gave me a life and a heart! He was my benefactor! That's why I made my life's goal to take down Doflamingo in his stead! I don't know if it has to do with that Will of D Cora mentioned, but…"
"D?"
"I'm just like Straw Hat," he said. This came as a asurprise for Saki, too. "I have a hidden name as well! You know something about this whole D thing, don't you?"
"Who knows… But I'm pretty sure Rocinante knew nothing about it, so that isn't the reason he saved you. Don't try to ascribe motives to his love for you!"
Saki winced when she heard that.
"If you're so adamant on saying all you've done is for him, then… let us not forget him," Sengoku said. "Go live your life. You're free now. This is what he would've told you."
And just then, the rubble around Saki started to float in the air. And not just that, all the rubble as far as the eye could see was levitating. She climbed on top of a ruined wall that was still attached to the ground to have better vision, and she saw it then.
"It's Fujitora!" She yelled at Law. "We have to go now!"
Law ran in her direction and Saki jumped down, falling into step with him. Try as he might to pretend nothing had happened, there were tears welling in his eyes.
They arrived at the port in a matter of seconds, finding Cavendish and another of the warriors of the Colosseum guarding the path.
"It'll be the same no matter where you are, so get the ships ready!" Law shouted at them.
Cavendish was quick to retort and with good reason. "We were waiting for you! Where were you, Trafalgar Law?!"
They were nearly there when Luffy also appeared, and for once, it seemed like something was going according to plan. Until Luffy decided that he was tired of running and would rather pick a fight with an Admiral, that was.
When Fujitora sent him flying, the giant caught Luffy in the air and restrained him, but all the rubble was still hanging in the air, and no matter how many ships they had prepared in the port, the moment Fujitora released his power, they'd sink in the ocean. They appeared to be completely trapped until the inhabitants of Dressrosa came running after Luffy and filled the port, yelling at him to give their princess back. Only… they didn't look very angry. What had he done while they weren't watching him?
—
Luffy got himself a fleet against his will. Saki was past the point of surprise, so when his newly self-appointed subordinates decided to throw a party to celebrate, she had no objections to go along with it. On the run? Check. With an Admiral trying to catch them within arms reach? That too. A fleet full of people pissed off with Luffy and Law because they had deals with Doflamingo? Whatever. She had seen enough miracles in the last few days to not fret about the details. It'd be fine.
She was right on the money, of course. The rubble that had been hovering above them fell on top of the enemy ships, and if Saki didn't know better, she would've said that the Admiral had done them a favor on purpose. But that couldn't be.
All that was left was to enjoy the party and set sail to Zou.
—
Of all the people willing to lie their lives down for Luffy, Bartolomeo had to be the one to offer them a ride to Zou, and Saki had second thoughts about accepting his offer when she saw the ship (and third thoughts when she learned in the middle of a hailstorm that there wasn't a navigator on board). All the others had looked normal. Was it necessary to take this one? At least she didn't have to look at the figurehead while she was sailing on it, but she had a full week to become well acquainted with the concept of second-hand embarrassment.
The crew was so accommodating to the Straw Hats that it bordered on creepy, and civil with her and Law, but Bartolomeo seemed to have a bone to pick with Law in particular. Was it because he was a rival of Luffy, or was he jealous of the pirate alliance? No idea, but she wasn't used to seeing anybody talk to Law like that and she would have lied if she said she didn't feel some vicarious glee seeing him riled up.
She had told him. In her heart of hearts, he was never going to forgive the dumbass for what he had done.
"We could also have sofas on the main deck," she commented, looking at the Barto Club's lounge.
"We sail in a submarine, you know."
"You'd think in a world full of so many wonders there would be waterproof furniture."
"They would float away."
"You just want an excuse to keep using Bepo as a pillow."
"I'm used to it," he replied. "I could use a nap right now."
"A Bepo, you mean."
"I could use a Bepo all the time."
Saki smiled at that. "By the way, good thing about your new bounty."
"Hm?"
"I took a look at it before Bartolmeo threw it away. Your name's still the same."
"…"
"I think they'd run out of paper if they printed all of it."
"…"
"Any more names you've been keeping secret?"
Unexpectedly, he replied. "Water."
"What?"
"It's Trafalgar D. Water Law."
She couldn't help it. She tried to keep it in, but she let out an ugly snort and cracked up.
"What are you laughing at?"
"You."
His offended expression only made her laugh harder. "So what, are you and Luffy related or something?"
"I hope the fuck not."
I can kind of see the resemblance, I you both take off the hats—"
"I found the second part of The Kraken and the Princess."
Saki stopped her badgering right away, mouth wide open. "I've been looking ten years for that book!"
"I know."
"Is it good?"
"Awful."
"So you read it! Do you still have it?"
"Depends."
"On what?"
"On you stopping to be annoying."
"Oh, how dare you! I think I've earned the right—"
"So you know when the kraken went back to his underwater kingdom—"
She grabbed him by the lapels of his shirt and menacingly pulled him towards her. "If you say any spoilers I'll tattoo a dick on your face while you sleep."
He smirked. "Joke's on you, I don't do that anymore."
"I'll tell the others about your name."
"I don't care."
"Are you sure? Do you know how many D jokes twenty bored guys can make? Are you ready to live with that?"
Law's expression was blank as he processed what that would mean for his future. "I'll keep my silence if you keep yours."
"I knew you'd see reason."
"Get a room!"
Saki let go of Law to look, baffled, at one of Bartolomeo's men pass by after yelling at them.
"Oh," she said as realization hit her. "They think we're together."
"What's new?"
"Sure brings me back."
"Maybe we should be."
She pondered her options. "I don't know. This is stupid. You're stupid."
"Hey—"
"I'm still hurt."
"I—"
"But I think we should be together because clearly you can't be left alone for any extended period of time."
Law looked like he didn't know if he should be happy or offended. "…I'm fine with that."
"Good."
"Good."
"That reminds me," Saki said all of a sudden, having flashbacks of a conversation had at the entrance of an inn. "I should send a letter to Felicia."
"Why all of a sudden?"
She smiled at him. "It's a girl thing. You wouldn't get it."
—
When the shape of Zou appeared in the middle of a sea of fog, they thought they were heading towards a mountain, but at Law's insistence, the ship kept approaching it until it came into full view.
Bepo's home island was a massive elephant that walked very slowly through the sea, and they found the Straw Hat's ship tied to one of its hind legs.
"This is it. This is the coolest thing I've ever seen. Thanks for making me leave Asteria."
"You're welcome."
Saki was ecstatic at the prospect of disembarking. On the back of that elephant was an island full of Bepos. She also had the feeling that they wouldn't last another week sailing with Bartolomeo's crew, so the sole action of jumping from that ship onto the Thousand Sunny put her at ease.
Now, climbing the elephant posed a problem. It was so big that not even Law could Room them up, but one of the samurais said not to worry, so she watched Kanjuro draw something with that huge brush of his, and what came out was… That was a good question, actually. What was that?
It was supposed to be a dragon, alright, but it wasn't quite there. Maybe it would have been better to draw a really long ladder. Maybe it would have been worse, considering the guy couldn't draw a straight line if it killed him. For the first time in her life, Saki wanted to take someone's powers for herself, and it was less wanting a cool superpower and more out of respect for the fruit that had died for… for this.
The sacrilege was christened Ryunosuke, they climbed on its back, and it started to walk with a worrying lack of stability.
Walking up an elephant's leg for hours in a 90 degree angle wasn't Saki's idea of fun, but at least Law was sitting behind her and he made a decent armrest. She even fell asleep at some point, wondering how the heck the rest of their crew had gotten up there. Maybe Bepo knew a better way up?
Saki woke up from her sleepy state when one of the samurais mentioned a ninja and all the male passengers of the dragon bus turned around to stare at Kin'emon and Kanjuro. She didn't have time to process this, though, because the moment she opened her eyes she saw something falling towards them, and so did Robin.
"Woah! What's that?!" Was Luffy's cry before the unidentified flying object made impact with the samurais and pushed off the dragon.
"What the hell was that?!" Said Usopp, who seemed to be wrestling with anxiety 24/7, and who could blame him?
"I don't know!" Replied Robin. "It kind of looked like a person with a number of knives sticking out of him and bleeding… but it could also be a monkey."
"It was a monkey," Saki said blandly.
While tried to decide what to do, she started worrying about what would happen if Kanjuro fell into the sea. Would his drawing vanish? There were seven of them on the back of the dragon and three had eaten Devil Fruits, so surviving the fall wouldn't be enough, they'd also have to rescue nearly half of the group from drowning.
Saki didn't really trust that they were fine when the echoes of Kin'emon's voice reached them, telling to go on, but there wasn't much of a choice, because the unfortunate dragon they were using as a taxi had trouble enough breathing and walking in one direction at the same time. Turning around wasn't an option.
The thing looked in so much pain that Saki was starting to feel really bad about the whole situation they had put it in, and she petted its back in a manner that she hoped was encouraging.
"What are you doing?" Law asked her.
"Leave me alone."
"This is absurd," he muttered.
Saki paid him no mind. She could see Robin was getting invested too. Was she… was she on the brink of tears? Was Usopp too?
She glanced at Law for a moment, who looked like he wanted nothing more than to bolt away from the group the moment they reached the top because ugh, people with feelings, and Saki thought maybe he had a bit of a point. It was just a drawing. An offensively bad one. And, to complete their ride of shame, Luffy, Usopp and Franky decided to cheer on the dragon for the last stretch.
What a relief it was to be on solid ground again.
Ryunosuke's ink faded into the horizon to much crying on the Straw Hat's part, but Saki was glad the poor thing was being put out of his misery. Law and Zoro, though? Those remarks were so unnecessary. It seemed that every crew had to have its own grumpy asshole whose face cracked if they tried to smile or shed a tear.
They had landed in front of a fortification made of stone and mortar, with towers and a wall that surrounded the area inside, but the gate was wide open.
"There's forests, rivers and even a town!" Luffy yelled from the top of a tower.
Usopp was going to interject something, but Luffy just jumped down before he could. The rest of them went through the open gate, noticing the structural damage.
The path ahead, too, looked like something had stomped over the trees without any regard and left a trail. The town was empty, in the middle of a jungle, from the looks of it, and though it was in a state of disrepair, it didn't seem like the destruction had happened long ago.
Saki approached Law after examining a tree torn in half that wasn't yet dead. "How's the vivre card?"
"Are you worried about the others?" He asked, digging into his pocket.
"Of course! Aren't you?"
He pulled out the vivre card, pristine and white as new. "Bepo's doing fine, at least."
"Good to know."
There was suddenly a sound in the middle of the thicket and all of them stood to attention, ready to defend themselves.
Someone jumped out of the bushes at Zoro, who swung a sword at the enemy, but the other person changed course midair and did a flip in the air to avoid the slash. The attacker was a white bunny, and she swiped at Zoro with an electrified claw.
Saki didn't even know rabbits could have claws.
"Wait! Stop, Carrot!" Someone yelled, and a bipedal, talking dog mounted on a crocodile appeared from the forest. "Leave them be! We've got to deal with intruders in the whale forest!"
The rabbit called Carrot jumped impressively high as Usopp tried to interrogate the dog about her clothes, but nobody was paying attention to him, or any of the humans present anymore, really. So it was a surprise when, right before leaving with Carrot, the dog turned around and gave them instructions to find the bodies of their companions.
Law and Saki shared a look while the others freaked out. Granted, she was also close to it.
"Couldn't you have had a vivre card made for Mack too, or something?" She complained.
"If these people tried to attack Mack, he'd serve them for dinner."
Saki sighed. The faith Law had in his crew would have been touching if she wasn't starting to get worried about their safety.
"Don't fret," he told her. "They have to be nearby."
"Traffy," Robin called out to Law in a way that would never stop being immensely funny. He wasn't even fighting it. "Your crew should be here too, right? Can you get in touch with them?"
"No… I didn't think I'd be able to see them again in the first place."
"You—!"
Law took a few steps away from Saki as a precaution, and it was a good idea because she had been about to punch the daylights out of him.
He showed the vivre card to Robin. "This belongs to our navigator, Bepo."
"Oh! Hey, come to think of it, you've got a talking polar bear in your crew, don't you? Is he a mink too?" Usopp asked.
"Yeah. This is his hometown, but he doesn't remember much about the island. He left this place at a young age." Law started walking, following the card, and the rest of them followed him. There wasn't much else to do: it was either following the card or the dog woman's instructions, and given a choice, Saki knew which one she'd take. "He's been with me for ten years – he can be trusted. We should head straight for him if we want accurate intel."
Saki thought Bepo would cry from happiness if he heard him say that.
—
As it turned out, the minks weren't cannibals and their friends weren't dead. After sorting out that misunderstanding, the dog woman, Wanda, and Carrot, led them to where the rest of the Straw Hats were.
It was some sort of village, and the buildings were made out of giant pineapples. Hundreds of minks showed to welcome them, and they were in a very festive mood. Saki would have been extremely excited at the wonders in front of her eyes if it weren't for her disappointment at her friends not being there. Priorities, dammit! Hers wasn't the only patience running short, though.
"Hey, Straw Hat-ya!" Law yelled. "I'm going to look for my crew!"
"Sure! See you later!"
"Let's go," he said to Saki, and when they were away from the main group, he huffed. "They're exhausting."
Saki laughed at that somewhat wryly and patted him on the back. She couldn't help be relieved, too, that they didn't have to be following the Straw Hats for at least the next fifteen minutes. As much as she liked them, eleven days stuck with them and their fanboys had been a little too much.
Following the direction of the vivre card, they found a winding road among the trees that they walked for a few minutes. She kept looking up, wondering if they'd find their friends in pineapple houses too, but after a while, the greenery thinned out and a clearing started to come into view.
A big grin spread on her face the moment she saw Jean Bart, and as soon as she did, she raised her arms high and started calling out for them to catch their attention. "Hey, guys! We're here!"
The reaction was immediate. A stampede of Heart Pirates ran straight at them, to Law's satisfaction, who looked happy at last. He caught Bepo in the air when he jumped to hug him, but Saki didn't have a chance to wonder how he'd managed to do that because at the same time Marina nearly strangled her with a hug of her own.
"Welcome ba—AAGH!"
Deterred perhaps by the fact that Bepo was absolutely hogging Law to himself and that these people somehow still had respect for him, they decided to swarm him when Bepo was done with him and instead tackle the women to the ground. Saki saw it coming, but Marina was attacked from behind, and both collapsed to the ground in a growing pile of pirates. It happened so fast that Saki didn't even have time to tell Shachi that he was the one who looked like shit this time.
There were a lot of voices, but Saki couldn't see much at all.
"Where were you?"
"How's your brother?"
"Did they treat you well?"
"You should've told us you were leaving!"
She heard all of this and more while she tried not to suffocate under the weight of her friends. With a lot of effort, she was able to wiggle her head out of the heap, take a deep breath, and say, "Is this what people call a heart attack?"
The questions were replaced by groans of disgust, and she could swear Shachi punched her for that, but it was hard to tell whose fist that was and she didn't think he was going to fess up.
"Oh, it's her alright," she heard Mack say, and the heap of people started to disperse to gather around Law. There was a rare smile on his face. "Are you satisfied? You kept all the fun to yourself."
She snorted. "Believe me, I would've loved to share."
Marina sat next to her. "Was it that bad?"
"We nearly died, but what's new?"
"Sounds like a regular day to me," Mack said.
"I just hope I'm near you the next time I have a regular day."
Marina grinned and gave her a hug, this time without the imminent threat of suffocation. "You better!"
"We've got lots to talk about, so let's move deeper inside the forest!" Shachi said to everyone, and the group around Law began to move excitedly, pushing him forward. Bepo turned away from them to look at Saki, smiled widely, and ran towards her.
Saki dusted off her clothes and got up. Maybe she wasn't back in the Polar Tang yet, but she didn't feel any urgency to return anymore, not as long the people that made it worth living there were with her. It was good to be home.
—
In the middle of the festivities, a group of Heart Pirates snuck glances to where Saki had just left Law sitting alone – soon to be assaulted by several minks – to join Nami and Chopper. Bepo was enjoying the music and the feeling of being back in his hometown, if only temporarily, while he kept an ear trained on their conversation.
"No way."
"I say they're together."
"You think so?"
"How much you wanna bet?"
"Ten thousand they aren't." Shachi said.
Penguin sent a discrete glance towards the two of them. "I would agree, but… I don't know?"
Shachi looked at them. "Yeah, no."
"How are you so sure?"
"I mean," Penguin intervened, "objectively speaking, how likely is it?"
There was a chorus of disgruntled acknowledgement.
"We've all thought it at some point," Marina admitted.
"Precisely," Shachi replied. "And has it ever been true?"
"Oftentimes I think I'll get used to how dense you are," Mack intervened. "But I never do. It's amazing."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Bepo lifted his tankard to his mouth to conceal a smile, feeling for the first time in a long while that everything was going to be alright.
—
After half of the Straw Hats left to rescue their friend, it was the Heart Pirate's time to move to their next shared objective, and also give the remaining Straw Hats a ride to Wano.
All of sudden, maybe because she was carrying her bag and making a mental list of all the things she needed to put back in their place, she remembered there was something in her possession she had no use for.
"Hey, Law," she called out while she rummaged in her bag.
He was about to head inside the submarine with Bepo, but he stopped in front of the door to look at her. "Yeah?"
She pulled of the thing she was looking for. The Eternal Pose to Niva he had given her months ago. Bepo stared at it with curiosity while Law's face momentarily paled to the same color of his friend's fur. Could that be guilt? Good.
"Are you ever going to use this for anything?" She asked.
The blood returned to his face when he realized she hadn't pulled out the Eternal Pose to sling accusations. "No, I don't need it." He glanced at Bepo with a silent question.
"You can keep it. Even if we needed to go back, it's not that hard to navigate there if you know what you're looking for."
"Oh, that's good to know." She smiled. "Very good."
The guys didn't have time to ask what she meant by that, because she immediately turned around, walked to the railing, and, with all the concentrated force of someone who had wanted to punch the daylights out of her beloved boss and for months wasn't able to, she flung the Eternal Pose overboard. Pride surged within her when she saw how far away it landed.
"Whew!" She breathed out, grinning and stretching her arms over her head. "That's a load off my chest."
She really felt so much lighter.
"Those… those are kind of expensive…" Bepo said timidly.
"It doesn't matter," Law replied. Saki turned around without any remorse and saw that he was trying to hide a smile of his own. "Let's go, Bepo. We need to review our course."
"Aye, Captain!"
Law entered the submarine with Bepo trotting behind him, and Saki took one last moment before doing the same to take in the sights. Funny how the same sea could look completely different when she looked at it from that deck, forever contaminated by the effects of the coconut rain. Nostalgia washed over her like a downpour of coconut flakes.
It was great to walk inside the Polar Tang again. The sounds, the smell, the familiar hallways and stairs that Saki could navigate with eyes closed. The tile that Shachi had installed at the entrance and that Law loved to pretend wasn't there, but had never touched because he knew not to cross some lines and he would have faced a riot if he had. She had missed everyone, she had missed the submarine, and she was never, ever, leaving again.
She hurried to her shared quarters with Marina to drop off her things. On the way there, she wondered if she had moved things around or removed one bed to have more space – she wouldn't have minded sleeping on the floor for the time being, honestly, being home was its own reward – and started to think of ways to fit in a third bed for Robin.
She was surprised to find the room exactly as she had left it. It was like she'd never been away at all.
But she was even more surprised to find a package on her bed. She though it was Marina's, at first, but there was a hastily written card – Shachi's chicken scratch, though someone had signed the note with a cute little penguin, so no guesses as to who the culprits were – with Saki's name that only said, 'how's this for a heart attack?'
Dying of curiosity, she opened the envelope to find inside… fabric.
White fabric.
She unfolded it to reveal a boiler suit.
Chuckling, Saki extended it on her bed to take a good look at it. It was her size. Either someone had a very good eye for measurements, or they had taken them from the clothes she had left behind. In any case, it had taken time to craft. This had been prepared beforehand. It was the mark of a grade A prank.
The Heart Pirates Jolly Roger smiled at her from the uniform with a silent dare.
Well, she supposed it wouldn't hurt to cave in, just this once.
Those bastards. She wouldn't change them for anything in the world.
She slipped inside the suit and zipped it up. It was a warm and comfortable fashion crime, she had to admit, though she didn't think this one would make her bounty go up although it should have been worth at least five million. Ah, the struggle of being an infamous pirate.
This demanded payback, but first things first, she had to make the preparations for the trip and help Robin settle in. Bracing herself for the deluge of smartass commentary that was about to befall her, she proudly strutted out of her room in uniform and started to make her way to the bridge.
It was time to set sail.
That was… long. And I don't mean the chapter, rather, the five years it took to get here. At the same time, I feel like I started this yesterday. It's been a lot. I've been through a lot while I wrote this, too. Some of you have asked me over the years how I was able to keep this up for so long, and the answer is sheer stubbornness to tell the entire story I intended from the start, and to prove to myself that I could. I had never finished a long fic before I started writing Inked on Skin, and with this, I have two now. I will do a write-up (or several) soon and post it on my tumblr blog, because I have a lot of thoughts now that I'm done with this.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart for tagging along while this story was being cobbled together. I could have never brought this story to its conclusion without your readership and your encouragement. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You've made me the happiest I can be.
Now, for the interesting part: what's next?
First, the not-OP related things: I want to finish Folding Socks, write the Hunter x Hunter fic I've had in mind for about three years now, get some proper done work on more fics for the Anomaly verse.
Second and what probably interests you more, the One Piece stuff:
Ever since finishing this last chapter, I proved myself that I've become physically unable to stay away from One Piece fanfiction for more than a couple weeks at a time and I'm now working on three fics at a time (help). I don't know if they'll go anywhere interesting, but there's already a snippet of one of them in my blog (remember, I'm tackyink on tumblr). One's about a sky islander falling off the clouds and making her way through the Grand Line, another's about a Cipher Pol agent, and lastly there's a self-insert I'm writing for exclusively wish-fulfillment purposes that will probably never see the light of the day because I'd die of embarrassment, and then I'd stop writing, and we don't want that.
I've also been heavily suggested to continue the real world AU of Inked on Skin (you can read it on AO3, my penname's Archaeological), and I'd like to write some more scenarios with these characters. Perhaps I'll even continue the story proper, but I need to see where the manga goes before deciding that.
So, if you're interested in any of the things I've mentioned, I recommend that you take a look at my blog from time to time and see what I'm up to.
You've been awesome to me. Thanks for your time, and hopefully, see you around!