The sound of crying children. Screams in the air. The town burning. My beloved parents and my sister Lammy, my family… I couldn’t protect any of them. I couldn’t save them. Everything vanished in a blaze. I raced through the town, looking for someone, anyone, to save. But there was no one. The world before me was only ash. Smoking, charred bodies lay at my feet.
I woke up and bolted upright. My pajamas were soaked with sweat. I was breathing heavily, and for a second, I didn’t know if I was back in reality or still in the nightmare.
“Law…?” said Bepo with concern. He’d been sleeping right next to me.
“Sorry. Did I wake you?”
“It’s fine. I’ll go get you a glass of water.”
“Thanks.”
I’d barely gotten any sleep over the last few days. It was hard for me to actually fall asleep, and when I did drift off, I was inevitably awakened by a nightmare. This had been going on for several days now, and I knew exactly why. It was an article I’d seen on the front page of the newspaper five days ago. It was an article about Dressrosa. The headline read: “New King Reigns in Dressrosa! His Name Is Doflamingo.”
Just seeing the headline made me dizzy. It felt like I could see all the points come together to form a line: this was what Doflamingo had been after, ever since back when I was in his crime family. The article continued:
✦ ✦ ✦
Dressrosa has long been known as a kingdom of peace, until the shocking recent incident in which the king went mad and slaughtered his own citizens. The pirate Doflamingo put a stop to it and has now taken over as the new king, bringing the chaos under control.
✦ ✦ ✦
I knew it was a setup. I didn’t have any evidence, but my instincts told me things hadn’t really happened that way. Likely the king’s “sudden madness” was some kind of machination Doflamingo had orchestrated.
I also understood the message Cora had given me was to prevent this exact situation from coming about. He believed that what was written in the message could save the kingdom of Dressrosa.
I felt sick to my stomach. If only the sailor I’d reached out to wasn’t one of Doflamingo’s men. If only I’d known what Cora was thinking sooner. For that matter, if only I hadn’t met Cora at all… So many ifs ran through my head, one after the other. I knew that Cora wouldn’t be happy to see me spiraling like this. And yet, I couldn’t help but lament my own helplessness.
Three years had passed since I left Cora behind and found my way to old man Wolf’s cabin. In that time, I’d grown to over six feet tall, and my body was tougher and stronger than it was before. I’d learned more about being a doctor, and I’d helped many patients at the clinic in town. I could use the Op-Op Fruit’s powers far more effectively than at the start. But I was still just a kid. An immature youth who didn’t know what to do next, even now that I understood what Cora was trying to do.
My life here had become precious to me over the last few years. Bepo and Penguin and Shachi and old man Wolf were cherished companions of mine. We could keep living together like this for as long as we wanted to. But somewhere in my heart, a voice screamed at me that this wouldn’t happen after all. I wouldn’t ever be truly happy if I ignored the unfinished business of Cora, the person who had first saved my life. I could still remember what he’d said to Doflamingo in his very last moments: “Just let him go! He is free!”
Cora had wished for me, a small and helpless child, to be free of all the ties that bound my life. But I couldn’t just follow his wishes and never look back. Simply living out a free and easy life with my friends wouldn’t be measuring up to his example.
Whether Cora wished for it or not, I bore a responsibility toward his memory. I owed a debt to the thing he was trying to protect. What should I do? How can I erase the hatred I feel for Doflamingo? How can I repay Cora’s love? How will I ever know true freedom?
Bepo interrupted my train of thought. “I brought you some nice warm tea, Law, brewed with herbs from the old man’s garden. It should help you relax a little.”
“That’s great. Thanks, Bepo,” I said.
“Don’t mention it. I couldn’t help but notice that you’ve been tossing and turning a lot lately.”
“It’s true,” I agreed. “I’m sure Penguin and Shachi have been worried, too.”
“Is it something you don’t want to talk to us about?” Bepo asked gravely.
“Yeah. I’m still trying to process it. Sorry to be vague,” I replied.
“It’s okay. But if you ever do want to talk about it, I’m all ears.”
“Of course,” I said as we returned to our beds and tried to get back to sleep.
“Hey, Bepo?” I asked him in the darkness.
“What?”
“Is there anything you really, really want to do?”
“Hmm… Oh, I know! I want to go fishing with you guys the next time we all have a day off! And then we can cook it over the fire and eat it right where we caught it,” he said.
“Not like that,” I said. “I mean, grilled fish does sound good, but I mean more like something you’ve always wanted and dreamed and hoped for. Something big.”
“Hmmm…” Bepo put a paw to his chin to think. He knew it meant a lot to me and wanted to have a good answer.
“I’d still like to find my brother,” Bepo said eventually. “It’s really fun being with you guys, but I think about him often. I wonder if he’s all right, or if he’s going through hell. I’ve been studying navigation the whole time I’ve been here. I suck at it, but I am able to draw sea maps now. Someday I want to go out searching for my brother again.”
“I see,” I said. Someday.
“Sorry for being weird. Let’s go to bed,” I told him.
“Yeah. Good night.”
I lay back and thought to myself. Like Bepo, I wanted to go to Dressrosa someday. I didn’t know what I would do there, but I also knew I couldn’t just avoid the issue. However, as long as I qualified my desire with the word “someday,” I had a hunch that someday would never come.
There’s no use fretting over this. I need to actually get some sleep. Thinking about the future was all well and good, but I had a life here that I needed to protect. There was a world right in front of me that needed my help. And it was very important that I didn’t forget that.