Chapter Text
Law hesitated at the edge of Cora’s meadow, with its calm wildflowers and soft eternal spring sunlight, staring at the headstone at the edge of the seaside cliff that formed half of the meadow’s border.
“So that’s him?” Okojo asked softly. She took Law’s hand and squeezed, and he found himself grateful that he’d brought her instead of Bepo this year. Not just because she and Cora deserved to meet in whatever way they could, but because Bepo had been afraid to say the wrong thing last year, so he’d stayed completely silent.
“Yes.” Law’s voice cracked, and he cleared his throat to try to steady it before he continued. “Sengoku set this up, right after…”
“Do you come every year?” Okojo asked, her voice soft and curious.
“This is only my second time,” Law replied quietly. “I didn’t know where he was until…”
“Until after Dressrosa?” Okojo guessed.
“No. I found out a few months before that, when I was poking around a secured file storage after a Warlord meeting.” Law smiled a little as he added, “Coming here for the first time was what made me decide it was time to take the risk of going to Punk Hazard.”
“So…are you going to tell him that decision led to you being engaged?” Okojo asked in that purposefully innocent tone of hers. Law rolled his eyes and tried to ignore the heat rising in his cheeks.
“That’s not exactly what happened,” he grumbled. He did finally step into the meadow, though, with Okojo at his side. Together, they approached the headstone. When he reached it, Law knelt and reached out with his free hand to touch the engraving. He traced Cora’s name in silence, then dropped his hand to the date of death.
“Cora-san,” Law murmured. “He died protecting me.” Okojo nodded silently; she knew that much, even if Law had never told her the details. “He told me he loved me and then locked me in a treasure chest. He smiled the whole time, knowing he was probably going to die. But I think he wanted me to remember his smile. Then he died protecting me, and I never got to tell him I loved him back.”
“I bet he knew,” Okojo said. Law glanced sideways at her, but her eyes were locked on the headstone. “Anyone who loves you knows how you show love, Dad. We all know. Cora-san knew you well enough to love you, so I’m sure he knew that you loved him, too. I think he still does. In Dressrosa, we believe our loved ones watch over us even after they pass on. We believe they can hear us when we talk to them, especially at their memorials.” Okojo placed her palms on her thighs and bowed formally to the grave before them. “Thank you for loving and saving my father, Cora-san. It’s an honor to meet you.”
For a second, Law just stared at Okojo, processing the way she just…talked like Cora would hear her. Law had been reluctant to do so the first time he visited, at least out loud. He’d made silent promises and apologies while Bepo stood guard last time.
But maybe this time…maybe he could let himself believe in something softer, something more hopeful than the disappointed and restless spirit he had imagined last time.
“Cora-san…I beat him.” Law’s eyes and throat stung as he continued. “I’m sorry that it took me so long to come back and tell you that.” He swallowed hard as Okojo quietly took a seat on the ground next to him. “I hope you approve of how things turned out, including the new members of the family.” Law put his arm around Okojo’s shoulders. “This is Okojo. She’s my daughter, and I think you’d like her.” He managed to smile even as his words caught on the lump in his throat. “She reminds me of you a lot, Cora-san.”
“I do?” Okojo sounded surprised and a little shaken.
“You seem like you’d get a kick out of arson if someone hurt your friend Chimney,” Law replied.
“I would absolutely get a kick out of arson,” Okojo agreed. “But what’s that got to do with Cora-san?”
“Well, when I was little, and I still had Amber Lead Syndrome, Cora-san brought me to a lot of different hospitals hoping that the doctors would find a cure. We usually got kicked out because they were worried I was contagious, and-“
“Oh my god was Grandpa Rosi an arsonist?” Okojo blurted out. “Did he destroy hospitals?”
“That’s a word for it,” Law agreed, giving the headstone in front of them an exasperated glance. “He always took insults or attacks on people he loved a lot more personally than anything anyone could ever do to him directly.”
“Guess you come by it honestly, then,” Okojo mused. Law frowned, unsure what she meant.
“Me?”
“Yeah? People call you creepy, or spread nasty rumors about you, and you don’t care. But then when that guy said Bepo was dumb and scary that one time, you almost julienned them.”
“My bad reputation protects the crew. But letting someone insult Bepo doesn’t serve a purpose,” Law insisted.
“Mhm. Remember how I said Cora-san knew you loved him because he must have known how you show love?” his daughter pointed out. “I know how you show love, too, and half the time it’s through making people who are mean to us disappear.” Okojo’s teasing smile froze on her face, and Law wondered if she’d thought of something she would rather have left behind. “Dad, he’s coming,” she whispered urgently. Before Law could ask what she meant, he realized he could sense it, too; a familiar and menacing presence bearing down on them from the direction of the sea.
“Hide your presence and run,” Law ordered. “Get to the crew, and-“
“But-“
“That’s an order, Okojo! Go now, before-“
“Before what, Law?” the voice that matched the presence and the sense of impending doom Law felt when he sensed it asked. Law got to his feet and unsheathed Kikoku, pushing Okojo behind him even as the monster from both their pasts alighted on Cora’s headstone like a demented pink vulture. “Did you really think you could hide my own daughter from me? Did you think I would let you take her from me like you took Rosi?”
“You’re the one who killed Cora-san, not me,” Law snapped, bringing Kikoku up with his right hand and holding out his left as he activated his devil fruit. “Room.”
“I killed the traitor you made him into,” Doflamingo insisted with a sneer. “I won’t let you live long enough to do the same to Cerise.”
“You don’t have a say in either of our lives or lifespans,” Law snapped. “Okojo, stay back. That’s an order from your captain,” he added when he heard her start to protest.
“I have a say in whatever I want,” Doflamingo replied, smirking as he flexed his fingers. “And it’s cute that you think you can give my daughter orders.” And then the fight was on.
As a child, Law had been unable to see the strings. In Dressrosa, he had needed Luffy’s help to defeat Doflamingo. Now, Law could sense the strings as they moved through his Room.
He could slice them with Kikoku’s armament haki-coated blade.
He could hold his own against the monster from his past.
Law didn’t know how much time passed as he traded blows with Doflamingo, blade against strings, but he knew the moment Doflamingo decided he was bored with the fight.
Suddenly, it wasn’t him that the strings shot toward. It was Okojo.
Law reacted instinctively, a flick of his wrist and a single word sending her to safety.
“Shambles.” The split second it took him to reorient himself was too long. The strings reached him, curling around his limbs. They bit into his skin and made it impossible to keep his concentration on Room. “Shit.”
“I guess you’ve grown, Law. You’re finally as strong as I knew you could be,” Doflamingo laughed. “But you’re still the same scared, stupid child that couldn’t let go of Rosi’s death. You’ll be even easier to kill than he was.”
“Wait!” Okojo spoke for the first time since Law had ordered her to stay out of the fight. She had her daggers in hand, and she stepped forward, into the web of strings between Law and Doflamingo like she didn’t care about the possibility of the strings touching her. One wriggled and shot towards her, but Okojo sliced it with a haki-coated dagger.
“Ooh, that’s my girl,” Doflamingo chuckled carelessly. “You kept getting stronger, didn’t you? I knew I raised you with enough ambition to-“
“I don’t care what you have to say. But you should care about what I’m going to say,” Okojo interrupted. Her chin lifted and her eyes locked with Doflamingo’s despite the absurd height difference. “If you kill him, you’ll lose us both forever.”
“Oh? How is that?” Doflamingo smirked. A few more strings made a grab for Okojo, but she deflected or sliced through them without looking away from the monster controlling them. “You’re not going to tell me I should keep you both and use you for leverage against each other, are you?”
“No. It would be stupid to keep us both that close to you and each other. Plus, the second that Luffy found out, you’d be dead and we’d be free. And you’re a lot of things, but you’re not stupid,” Okojo admitted. “But if you kill the man I’ve chosen as my father, I won’t have any reason to stay.”
“Oh! You think you can outrun me!” Doflamingo laughed, throwing his head back for dramatic effect. Because of that, he didn’t see Okojo move. She crossed the distance between them in an instant, slicing strings as she went. It was the cut strings that made Doflamingo stop laughing and pay attention as she came to a stop right in front of him.
“I’m faster than you,” Okojo said calmly. “And my crew has a submarine and a transponder snail. If you kill our captain, we’ll be under the sea and on the snail to the Straw Hats before you can catch us.”
Doflamingo stared down at her, a scowl twisting his expression.
“Where are you going with this, you little shit?” he snapped.
“Okojo, don’t-“ Law’s mouth snapped shut as strings closed it without his permission.
“You need me to come with you willingly, unless your whole grand plan was to kill me after all.” Okojo’s voice didn’t waver, and neither did her grip on her daggers. “If you let Law keep his freedom, I’ll go with you.”
“He’ll just fetch Straw Hat and they’ll come to take you back. No deal.”
“No, he won’t. He won’t risk Luffy ruining it and going crazy if I’m there next to you.” The worst part, in Law’s opinion, was that he couldn’t actually tell if Okojo believed that or not. No, actually, the worst part was that Law himself wasn’t sure. Luffy would never purposefully endanger Okojo, but Gear Five was still an unknown that could get away from him, and… “See? You can tell from his face that I’m right,” Okojo insisted. “Now, do we have a deal?”
“You strike a hard bargain. But then, I did teach you to use what people want most against them,” Doflamingo mused. “I’m so proud of you.” Law thrashed against the strings, but they didn’t give way. He knew what that meant. If Doflamingo took Okojo now, he’d have the perfect tool to take his revenge on Luffy and the Straw Hats. And once he had Okojo away from the island, there would be nothing to stop him from just killing Law anyway. He’d miss the chance to see the life drain from Law’s eyes, but the chance to keep him from interfering and get back at Luffy at the same time might be worth it to him.
“Well?” Okojo demanded.
“You should know better than to rush me,” Doflamingo sneered. “But your impatience shows that you’re desperate, which gives me the upper hand. Fine, I’ll accept your little deal. Come along, Cerise. Just like old times.”
Law strained against the strings, not caring that they dug into his skin, leaving dozens of tiny cuts behind.
He had to stop Okojo.
“Good.” Okojo climbed Doflamingo’s coat, seizing handfuls of pink feathers to pull herself up to perch on his shoulder without letting go of her weapons. “Where are we going?”
“Home to see your mother,” Doflamingo replied, his smirk stretching unpleasantly across his face. He straightened and stepped back, off Cora’s headstone and onto the strings connecting him to the clouds above.
Okojo looked back at Law.
He couldn’t read her expression, but he knew Doflamingo wouldn’t keep his word. He knew he was going to die. And all he could do was the very thing Cora had done.
So he forced himself to smile, and hoped that Okojo would remember their brief time as a family with fondness, not regret. He saw Okojo’s eyes widen as she realized what he was doing, and it was all he could do to keep smiling.
He wished he could tell his daughter that he loved her one last time, but the strings still held his jaw shut.
Doflamingo stepped out over the cliff’s edge, suspended on his strings. Law felt those same strings tighten around his wrists and throat.
He saw Doflamingo move away from the cliff, farther out over the crashing waves below.
He saw Okojo shift, like she was turning her back so she wouldn’t have to watch Law’s gruesome death. He couldn’t blame her. He felt the strings start to draw blood, and thought to himself that at least it would be quick.
He saw Doflamingo jerk, what looked like blood dyeing his stupid pink coat crimson, and then the strings went limp, and Doflamingo fell out of sight, towards the ocean.
Okojo seemed to hang in the air for an instant, and in that split second, Law swore he could see her grin victoriously before she plunged below the line of sight the cliff allowed him.
Law didn’t have time to think. He threw himself forward, feeling the strings dissolve around him. He collapsed at the edge of the cliff with a hoarse shout.
“Room!”
Blue light surrounded him, reaching desperately for one of the two bodies falling to the merciless waves, to the ocean that would swallow the devil fruit eaters without remorse. There was no time to think, to be afraid that he wouldn’t be fast enough. But there were plenty of drops of his own blood to use.
“Shambles!”
The blood trailing from his wrists down his palms vanished, and Okojo’s trembling body was there instead.
“Dad!” Okojo clung to him, and Law scrambled back from the cliff’s edge.
“What the fuck were you thinking?” Law demanded as he pushed himself to his feet. Then his brain caught up to his mouth. “No, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. But we have to go, before-“
“He’s not coming back, Dad.” Okojo tried to push away enough to look him in the eye, but Law refused to loosen his arms as he hauled her as quickly as he could towards the cover of the tree line. “Dad! I mean it!”
“Of course he’s coming back, he’s a deranged narcissist that-“
“Dad, he’s dead!” Okojo shouted. Law stopped. He held his daughter at arm’s length and processed what she was saying. She was splattered with blood, especially her arms and chest.
“Ex-fucking-scuse me?”
“I stabbed him. In the neck. With my seastone dagger. I kept it coated in haki so he wouldn’t notice it was seastone, and-“
“You stabbed Doflamingo,” Law repeated.
“Yeah, in the neck. Only about half of the way through since he’s so huge and my daggers aren’t. I was able to rip through the carotid and jugular, through, and I think I got a chunk of the esophagus, so-“
“You just. Stabbed him.”
“Dad, are you okay? You don’t look so good.”
“You just stabbed a man in the neck and fell off a cliff towards the ocean when you can’t swim, and you’re asking if I’m okay?” Law demanded.
“Uh…yeah? You’re the one who looks like you’re going to pass out.” Okojo frowned. “You’re also the one who decided to accept your impending death with a smile to try to give me one last nice memory or something like Cora-san did for you, like that wouldn’t be super fucking traumatic for me.”
“Oh.” Law stared at her. “I’m still processing this. Are you okay?”
“I’m covered in Doflamingo’s blood and also yours now, I think, and I lost my seastone dagger, but otherwise I’m okay.” At Law’s confused look, Okojo explained, “I couldn’t just pull it out and risk him recovering and catching himself. So I left it in his throat; that way he couldn’t use his Devil fruit to stop himself from falling. So I guess I technically stabbed him twice in the neck. You know, once to cut the veins and the second time to leave the dagger in him. That way if the blood loss or the impact doesn’t kill him, he’ll drown.”
“I see.” Law didn’t know what else to say.
“Yeah, so, I’ll definitely have nightmares and maybe a panic attack once the adrenaline wears off and it sinks in how close I was to missing my chance to save you, but I’ll be fine for the next minute or two,” Okojo continued casually.
Law couldn’t tell if he should be impressed or horrified by how self aware she was of her own impending reaction to what had just happened. He also felt like maybe he should be concerned about which part of what had just happened Okojo thought she’d have a bad reaction to.
“I think we should go back to the ship,” Law said faintly.
“Can we come visit Grandpa again before we set sail?” Okojo asked. “I want to hear more stories.”
“Maybe. We’ll see. Let’s get back to the ship and get underwater just in case first,” he said.
“Good idea. We should check for confirmation,” Okojo agreed. “Can’t leave anything to chance, and maybe we can get my dagger back.”
“That’s not…you scare me sometimes,” Law informed her. “You’re too much like me.”
“I don’t think that’s a bad thing,” Okojo said. “There are worse people to be like.”
“I don’t think that’s as comforting as you think it is,” Law replied. Okojo started to hesitate in her steps, and her breathing got rougher. “How’s that panic attack coming?”
“It’s great,” Okojo grimaced. “Thanks for asking. I think I can manage for a little longer.” Law considered his options.
“Get on my back. I’ll get us to the ship so we can both freak out. Okay?” Okojo looked like she wanted to argue, but ended up climbing onto Law’s back without saying anything.
The trip back to the Veer was short, Law supplementing their speed with his devil fruit whenever he could.
“Captain! Back so- what the fuck?” Shachi blurted out. “Why are you two covered in blood?”
“Pull up the anchor and get us under the surface as fast as you can,” Law ordered as he carried Okojo past their crew and into their ship. “Hold us half a mile off shore, as deep as we can go.” With that, he disappeared below the Coral Veer’s decks, leaving the crew scrambling to follow his orders.