Chapter Text
Law breathed in a shaky breath, his cheek pressed up against cold damp dirt. His heart pounded so loud in his chest he was certain the people stepping around above him must be able to hear it, but no one seemed to notice the small sickly boy beneath the floorboards.
“I want you to know that you deserve this.” A smug voice crooned, and Law heard a metal *click*, and had to keep a hand covered over his mouth to keep from crying. He had to be quiet, to be silent, at all costs, lest he endanger himself and Cora-San both.
Law squeezed his eyes shut, keeping himself still and silent and shaking. Even if he wanted to help, there was something moved on-top of the floorboards he was hidden under, and he was too weak to move them by himself. He just had to trust that Cora-San could make it out of this on his own.
Cora-san had promised. They were going to travel the world together and find someone who could fix him, because someone out there had to know how.
There was a cruel, biting laughter coming from above once again, and it dug into Law’s bones and made him feel cold.
“Nothing to say? All this time and you still refuse to speak to me?” The words grew in volume and rage, and suddenly accentuated with a loud *bang*, and the sound of a body falling to the floor.
Law tried to scream but it felt like something was lodged in his throat, stopping him from making a sound, and footsteps clacked on the boards above him, getting quieter as they left the room.
“Get somebody in here to clean this up.” Were the last words spoken before a squeaky door was shut, and Law started pushing at the boards above his head.
Please, please don’t let him die. Law plead to nothing, to no one. Law had believed in God, once, before the world deigned to take his family and country away from him, and he saw no reason to pray again after that. But now, trapped beneath the floor just feet away from the last person on earth who cared for him, he started to pray again.
Please, please let me help him. I could help him, if only I could get to him. He prayed, tears streaming down his face. His body was so frail from years of sickness and being malnourished, and whatever Cora-san had lifted on-top of the floorboards to keep him hidden was too heavy for him to move. Please, give me a way to help him. Please God, please anyone, give me a way to help him.
Law felt himself get warmer, and he pushed and struggled and panicked and prayed, and in his kicking and pushing he found himself bumping up against something warm and solid and he shouted in surprise.
There was someone here with him. Sitting up, legs crossed even though there wasn’t enough space under the floorboards to sit up, bending space around him was a boy.
The boy had raven black hair and big, dark eyes. A straw hat was tied to him by a string around his neck, but it was resting behind him on his back. He seemed to radiate heat, and Law felt himself begin to sweat with how warm the space had become. The boy stared at Law like he was a bug, filled with curiosity but looking at him like he was small.
On second glance, the boy noticed two horns atop the boy’s head, starting near the forehead and curling back and up like slicked back hair. Law gasped in shock, feeling a dread grip his soul.
He had heard legends and stories as a child, of people whose errant prayers reached ears of creatures and beings unthinkable. Of humans, in times of desperation and dismay, who called upon the help of the damned and in doing so damned themselves. In the stories, the things that humans sold their everlasting souls for seemed so meager in comparison to the promise of eternal hell and torture, but Law…
Law would give anything to save Cora-san.
“Can you help me?” He asked the boy, his voice shaky and his face wet with tears. “Can you help me save Cora-san?”
The boy blinked at him slowly, still studying him quietly.
“Please.” Law begged, more tears falling down his face. “He’s dying.”
“You’re dying too.” The boy pointed out, pressing a finger to Law’s forehead.
“That doesn’t matter right now!” Law yelled at the boy, batting his finger away. He was hot to the touch, like he was running a fever higher than any human could sustain. “Save Cora-San!”
The boy’s mouth grew into a wide smile, that reminded Law so much of Cora-san that it hurt.
“I can’t save him.” He said, still smiling, and Law opened his mouth to yell again before the boy held out his hand and stuck it in his own chest. Rather than meet resistance the hand slid through, like the boy was made of water, and dark ripples propagated from the spot. Law felt the edges of his vision go fuzzy as he had the distinct feeling he was seeing something he was not supposed to see.
After a moment the boy pulled something out of his chest, a heart shaped fruit adorned with dark swirls. Law was transfixed by it, and stared at it in awe as the boy began to speak again.
“I can’t save him, but I can give you this. If you eat it, you can save him and yourself.” The boy explained, holding it out in between them.
“But it’s a devil fruit. If you eat it, you’ll be bound to me and me to you. Forever.” The boy grinned impossibly wider, mischief dancing through his gaze. “No take backs.”
It only took Law a few seconds to make up his mind. Anything. Anything to help Cora-san, and on top of that it promised being able to save himself as well, something he hadn’t asked for but desperately wanted.
“I’ll do it.” He agreed, and the boy giggled, shoving the fruit into his mouth. It tasted awful, the worst thing Law had ever tasted, and he gagged as it went down.
The boy tapped his own cheek as Law suffered through eating the fruit. “Right. You should probably know how to use it too. I’ll give you shortcuts.” He said aloud, though mostly to himself, and grabbed Law by the shoulders and touched their foreheads together, and a bright light blinded Law. He held back a scream as his nerves set alight, his brain flooded with information he didn’t know how to conceptualize or understand.
“What is this?” He cried, head swimming as his brain raced to organize all the new information before it ate him alive. The boy looked up, as if searching for the information.
“I think Ace called it ‘Divine Knowledge’ or something. You should be able to use the really cool powers I gave you now.” The boy explained, scratching his nose.
Law grabbed at his head as the pain started to recede. Things were beginning to make sense, somewhat, but a logical part of him still felt like he must have hit his head and be dreaming all of this. It just felt too real, so he would treat it as real until proven otherwise.
“Okay, I think you got this now!” The boy exclaimed, and Law grabbed onto his arm in a panic, and was surprised to find it was solid and felt very human in nature, despite the clearly otherworldly makeup of the boy.
“Wait, please. I still need your help getting out from under here. And- there are dangerous people in this house, and it won’t matter if I can save Cora-san if they find and kill us.” He explained in a rush, he needed to get to Cora-san fast. He was pretty certain he could save him now, probably if he was just bleeding out and his spinal column was still in tact, but he was quickly running out of time.
The boy tilted his head before his grin turned excited and mischievous. “Oh, you need a distraction. I’m really good at those.” The boy looked up and quickly punched through the floorboards. Wood splintered and rained everywhere, and just as suddenly as the boy in the straw hat had appeared he was gone, but Law could hear his giggling laughter from the floors below.
He didn’t have time to dwell on it. Law climbed out of the hole in the floor and over to Cora-san’s body, slumped over in a puddle of his own blood. Law applied pressure to the bullet wound, just above his heart.
Law shot off a silent prayer-to the boy in the straw hat, he supposed-that everything would work the way he thought it would, and summoned his new powers.
“Room.” He called, and a shimmery blue bubble encircled himself and Cora-san, and he took a deep breath and got to work.