Archive of Our Own ^beta

(1) The mysterious running sounds in the dorms: For the first month at the beginning of the year, there were reports of running through the hallway, but no witnesses. The sounds of feet were always in the dead of night. There was no rhyme or reason to when the running could be heard until Law's roommate spoke up. They reported that they once witnessed Law quickly run from their room after receiving an unknown text.

When they were in high school this was more acceptable.

No, that’s a lie. Ace’s behavior was never okay. Ace and his brothers were the only people Law knew that had the guts and stupidity to climb up to a second story window in the middle of the night. The two of them became friends in Law’s junior year, and when they started dating in senior year, the frequency grew worse. After Law started complaining about Ace just showing in the middle of the night, Ace would justify it by sending a very short “I’m climbin :)))” text, expecting Law to just infer the situation. Usually, the text was sent while Law was wide awake at his desk in his room, so he could just unlock the window, and everything was fine. Relatively.

The first time Ace climbed in through his window, Law ended up screaming his (very manly) scream. Which in turn got his father bashing down Law’s bedroom door in a panic. Corazon, despite being a cop and having access to more modern weapons, had brought Law’s sword, usually kept above the mantel as decoration. Somehow that had threatened Ace more than when the police had chased him around with literal guns.

After that, Ace waited a full two weeks before trying to climb up into Law’s bedroom. The night he finally got gutsy enough to risk it again, he had a sleep attack right between the first and second floor. The only thing that got Law to even notice someone was outside was a very large shattering sound from the decorative planting pots that still sat unused beneath his window.

But that was on the second floor of his and Corazon’s home. And Law’s dorm room was on the fourth floor facing the parking lot. If Ace starts to climb up there, campus security will try to arrest him. And Ace will end up trying to run away. And even if he doesn’t get caught, there’s a good chance Ace forgot to take his meds and will have a narcolepsy attack on the way up the dorm’s side.

So when Law got the usual text the first week of college, he immediately started shoving his feet into his shoes. He’d been through this situation too many times and was not ready to start his college career with what he spent most of high school doing. Law was willing to drag him off the side of the building if he had to.

Law raced down the hallway towards the lobby, skipping the elevator and going for the quicker option of stairs. When he got through to the dorm’s front doors, he could very clearly hear the creak of metal against the sounds of night. Moving to the side of the building revealed Ace up on the drainpipe, already at the second-floor window.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing??”

“Law! What are you doing there?”

Sticking his thousand-year-old Nokia up at Ace, Law fervently whispered, “What are you doing here?? You can’t just send your monkey text and expect everything to be fine!”

Ace, choosing to stay up on the wall, sat down on the very thin sill of some poor soul’s dorm room. “You never had an issue before.” He sniffed.

That was because Corazon was weirdly okay with Ace scaling their house every night. Instead of justly treating him like an intruder, Corazon started greeting Ace like his second son. “This was never an issue before!” Law could feel his brow grow sore from him glaring. He didn’t even get to finish changing into pajamas. His ratty, rubber duck yellow, pants with a sweater and dress shirt were not the clothes he wanted to go out in public in. “Ace, can you just get down from there?”

Ace grinned and swiftly slid down the drainpipe. The face he pulled made him look just as surprised as Law that he pulled it off without falling. “I could be a firefighter!”

As if anyone would want to hire a genuine and proven arsonist. Law snorted, “Government departments don’t hire people with criminal records.”

“Hah! That record’s sealed, so good luck.” Law’s brain was still stuck in his medical studies and he was mildly worried about Ace’s hands after sliding down a pipe. Ace was still talking about how good he’d be as a firefighter and Law idly checked his palms and fingers as he pretended to listen.

When he looked up from his inspection Ace was looking at him with stars in his eyes. Law scowled. “What?”

“You care about me, don’t you doll?” Ace was using his mushy voice and that only made Law recoil further. It wasn’t too effective when he was still holding Ace’s hands. If he was asked, Law would blame it on being sleep deprived. And then Ace would argue that he was always sleep deprived.

Law shut his eyes for a moment before dragging Ace towards the entrance, still holding his hands. “Just shut up and come with me.”

-

(2) Threatening a freshman: Many of the volunteers for the freshman welcome crew were startled when one of the incoming freshman, a sweet small girl named Kaya, ended up partnering with the very threatening Law. I have found out that Kaya has an extensive medical history. Perhaps she owes a debt to Law's suspected gang?

Spending most of her time in special little quarantine, there weren’t many opportunities for Kaya to make friends. After her parents died, there was nobody else in the house but her butler. The only other kids she became close to were the two other kids in her cul-de-sac.

Nefertari Vivi moved into the next house over when Kaya was in third grade, and Trafalgar Law moved into the house right next to Kaya’s the year after. All three of them were in different grades, Law being older than Kaya and Vivi being younger, but they always sat together during the shared lunchtime and recess. She stopped spending her days waiting for the sun to set.

Vivi and Law were the only people she really connected with before they hit middle school. She met a boy with a long nose who was visiting his mother once at the hospital. They only saw each other at the hospital though. But then he stopped showing up and Kaya never saw him again. She never got any genuine information about his life and she guessed that he lived in a different part of town, so crossing paths again was an unlikely scenario. When Law graduated elementary, he ended up convincing his dad to let him go to the public school. Kaya remembers him mentioning something about rich little twerps getting on his nerves.

Once Law started going to public school, it was like a whole new world opened up. The first person she met was Perona, which was a very stark difference from what she was used to, but she was fun. Kaya liked that she was different than the neighborhood that she was so bored of before Vivi and Law came along. And of course there were more than just Perona. Law eventually introduced her to an entire crew of people, one of which being the sweet little storyteller boy from years ago.

All in all, Kaya felt like she owed a lot to Law. He was scary, and not always the kindest person in the room. But he’d play cheap Nintendo rhythm games with her without too much complaint, so she knew that the affection for one another was mutual. They also shared a bond over their relationship with medicine, both of them deciding that they wanted to become doctors at a young age. And while their preferred field of study might have been different, the passion was still there on all sides.

When her high school got the opportunity to visit the same college that Law was enrolled in, Kaya was thrilled. It had become even harder to see Law once he graduated. He was spending more time studying than before, and on top of that he moved into the dorms instead of staying with his father at home.

Kaya pulled out her phone while waiting for all the kids to unload off the school bus. Waiting on the notification wall was a text from Law.

Law

why am I doing this

Kaya

because were friends!! :)

Law

ive never had a friend in my life

Kaya

yes of course

i guess you were just in the volunteering mood

it’s very in character of you

Law

you fucking owe me

The chaperone tutted at Kaya and she had to pocket her phone again. All the kids were ushered into the school’s auditorium and Kaya took her seat.

The basic structure of the visit was that all the students in her senior class would sit in the campus’ auditorium and listen to some presentation on how college life works, and what the benefits were to pursuing further education, and then each student would go off with a volunteer for a short tour of the college.

Whoever made the PowerPoint slides thought that it was incredibly important to explain the history of the building’s architecture. Kaya wouldn’t say she was too thrilled with the first hour of the trip. From her seat in the back, she could see Law’s hat in the front rows of auditorium. It looked like he had either purposefully chose a seat a good distance away from everyone else, or they had all chose to avoid him. Each option was a pretty typical reaction.

Finally, she saw the group of volunteers being pulled up onto the stage and got to see Law’s glare easier. She could tell that he saw her too by the way his nose scrunched when she waved. Then the high schoolers that had chosen to come on the trip all shuffled onto the stage as well.

A large man with a microphone stepped right in between the two groups and spoke using one of those cheesy overused announcer voices. “Now’s time for the campus tour! Will each child please walk over to one of our lovely volunteers. We promise that they’re nice. They won’t bite you or anything!” He made a sweeping motion with his arm and Kaya’s classmates slowly dispersed.

Law purposefully avoided meeting the eyes of any of them and stalked right over to meet with Kaya. “I can’t believe you got me to do this.”

“It’s going to be fun! And I’d rather you give me a tour than anyone else here.”

Kaya got the huff she got in response as a quiet agreement. Around her she could feel the eyes of the volunteers grow more panicked. She supposed that the pairing was a bit odd looking to everyone around her, but that wasn’t so important to her.

“Okay! Now that you’ve all gotten paired up, feel free to start your tours!” There was a muffled thump noise when the ‘announcer’ clicked the microphone off.

Law grabbed Kaya by the wrist and started to walk off with her. His grip certainly looked tight, especially considering how thin her wrists were, but Kaya knew if she tried to tug back on it, he would let go immediately.

-

(3) Feeling up a girl in the elevator: I witnessed Law with his hand up a female student's skirt in the elevator at the dorms. Unsure on whether the act was consensual or not.

Perona grew up in a semi-isolated part of town. If you wanted to get to the nearest elementary school you would need to cross over the hills, over the train tracks, and through Grand Line, which constantly had traffic. So when Mihawk adopted her and Zoro, he decided to homeschool them.

That of course, led Perona to have basically no friends and be very unaware of how the general population acts in public spaces.

When she entered the public middle school in sixth grade, there weren’t exactly people lining up to talk to her. She had the aura of someone who’d gut you with nothing but her sewing needle, and then proceed to stitch up a teddy bear with it. It didn’t help that she had a habit of prattling about unsolved murders.

She had resigned herself to spend her lunchtime alone as well, but then saw the gloomy kid sitting in the back of the cafeteria with his hood pulled over past his nose. Her logic in the moment was very sound. At least to her. He’s alone. She’s alone. And obviously he’d love her company.

Law will insist that they are in no way friends, but the argument is kind of weak when she can list his favorite FNAF characters in order from way back in middle school.

They went to the same high school, and then to the same college. It’s the only one for miles, so most people in the region go there anyways. And with the student body being so large, not many people know each other too well. But if there’s one person on campus that majority knows with just a glance, it’d be Perona.

If you see Perona from across the courtyard, you don’t need to get any closer to tell that it’s her. The fifteen layers of petticoat make it pretty clear who you’re looking at. But what the other people didn’t know, was that Perona takes full advantage of all her skirts.

Sometime in high school, Perona had taken up the habit of added secret pockets to random parts of her petticoat and hiding literally anything in them. She had more storage space in there than she ever would if she only carried around a purse. Law remembers watching her pull out a papier-mâché replica of a guillotine she made in art from the third layer of her dress.

However, because the pockets changed location each time she dressed herself in the morning, she would often lose things in her mass of skirt. And usually she would enlist the help of someone else to find it. That someone else usually being Law.

So when she realized she’d lost her phone in the middle of Ivankov’s lecture on fishnets, Perona immediately made her way over to Law’s dorm room.

Walking past the swaths of tired med-students, Perona made her way to the dorm’s elevator. She selected the floor four with a heavily manicured nail and tapped her foot on the steel floor. Perona didn’t know if Law was even in his dorm room, but it’s not like she could call him to ask. She was visiting because she couldn’t find her phone in the first place. If she didn’t end up finding Law there she made the decision to simply sit on his grubby ass bed and wait for him.

Luckily for her, when the elevator doors opened, Law was right on the other side, glaring down at his cinder brick phone.

Perona grinned. “Hi you uncute whore!”

“What do you want annoying bitch.” Law still hadn’t looked up from his Nokia but managed to walk into the elevator without touching her skirt in the slightest.

“Law. I need your assistance. Pronto. On the double.”

That caused Law to look up, if only to scowl at her. Perona didn’t have a good track record for making normal requests of her friends. Law was still finding little fake bones around his room in senior year, after her art project in eighth grade.

“Dear God, calm your tits. I just need your help finding my phone. I’ve checked everywhere and I cannot find it.” Without any hesitation Perona started lifting her skirt up. “I need a second pair of hands and there’s nobody else I’d rather have rifle through my petticoats than you.”

“I will kill you if you say that again.” Despite his tone, Law still leaned down and helped check the various sewn in pockets. Most of which were very crudely attached. Law didn’t want Perona to screech about how he ruined her petticoat, so he tried to be careful in checking each one.

The campus elevators were ancient and took a whole minute to pass a single floor, so Law assumed he’d be able to find Perona’s shit before anybody else needed to use the elevator.

Law ended up being very wrong.

When the elevator reached the second floor, Law was still pushing through layers of fabric while Perona had started zoning out at the lights above the door. Law’s aim was just to get this over with as quickly as possible, so he was not paying attention to the possibility of someone on the second floor needing to use the elevator.

The doors opened and the two of them were greeted by a wide-eyed girl, blinking at them through red framed glasses.

Perona immediately saw the potential of the situation they were in, and milked it fucking dry. “Law! I can’t believe you’d do that! And in an elevator no less. I never thought you’d stoop down so low.” Her lips were pulled into a pout, but her eyes were full of gleeful malice.

And for the fiftieth time since he met her, he vowed that he will be the reason she ends up in a coffin.

-

(4) High schoolers are roped into his gang: Many people in the culinary department know about the high schooler named Sanji who is currently taking cooking classes at our college on special permission. But what most don't know is that Sanji was seen multiple times carrying a briefcase to and from Law's dorm room. The briefcase was later found out to contain multiple weapons.

Some people take the high school Home Ec. class and are fine with that. They’re fine with settling at average. Sanji is not ‘some people.’ Sanji does not settle for average. The moment he graduated that class, with the highest A by the way, he talked with the teacher about a higher-level cooking class. Of course, there wasn’t one at their public school. If Sanji wanted to take a more advanced class then he’d have to commute to the local college.

So of course he chose the commute.

He ended up having to talk to the principal to convince him it was worth it. After proving that Sanji’s one goal was to become a chef and joining the college for this class would aid in his future careers, the principal finally gave his stamp of approval. Kokoro luckily had a route that ran near the high school and towards the college campus right when he needed it.

The students in the college cooking courses were very welcoming to Sanji. A small part of him was worried about how they’d end up treating someone who was still legally a child wandering around their campus on the daily, but they were nothing but warm. The ladies in the department were, as expected, absolutely wonderful. They kind of treated Sanji like their collective little brother, which Sanji interpreted as denial.

Commuting to the college took up a good chunk of the hour-long periods, so Sanji had to miss sixth, as well as seventh, period each day. Sometimes he’d take his school bag along and other days, like today, he’d leave it with someone else. Lady luck had bestowed a strained yet acceptable gift in the form of Roronoa Zoro in his fifth period.

While the teacher droned on about the homework, Sanji turned around in his seat to discretely bash a sleeping Zoro over the head with his Calculus notebook. He could never understand how Zoro was passing math when he slept through fifty of the fifty-five minutes in the period.

Zoro attempted to snatch the notebook out of Sanji’s hands after the second whack and groaned, “What the fuck do you want cook?”

“Good morning ass-wipe. I need you to do something for me.”

“Wow, now I really want to help you.”

“Jesus Christ. I just need you to take my backpack home.” At Sanji’s long suffering despair, he and Zoro had been next door neighbors for all the years they’ve known each other. Their houses were originally one, but apparently the realtor thought it would be more profitable to split the building into two smaller homes. So even when they got into one of their violent fights, they’d end up cooling off on the way home together.

There was a noise that sounded like a cat impersonating a foghorn coming off Zoro. “Fine.”

“That wasn’t so hard wasn’t it?”

Zoro just blearily scowled at Sanji.

The teacher was beginning to pass out some sort of worksheet, presumably for homework, so Sanji hissed one final thing before turning back around. “I need to stop by my locker first. Don’t leave without me mosshead.”

Sanji was still shoving his plethora of highlighters into his backpack when the bell rang, and Zoro made sure to let Sanji know that he didn’t appreciate being held up. “Why do I have to wait for your slow-as-fuck ass?”

“Probably because you like my slow-as-fuck ass.” Sanji muttered, only half listening.

Instead of responding, Zoro gave Sanji a very stupid looking smirk.

“Yeah, uhuh, glad we figured that one out. Let’s go, dipshit.”

Sanji pulled his locker open, the metal door clanking, and Zoro leaned up against the locker next to him. “Perona can’t drive you today.” Usually Perona would bring Sanji home, seeing as she regularly came back to visit. But every now and then she needed to stay back at the college and Sanji needed to find another ride.

“Yeah, she told me.” Sanji grabbed the notes he needed for homework and stuffed them in his bag before shoving it at Zoro’s chest. Then he grabbed the briefcase sitting at the bottom of his locker. “Law’s giving a ride and I know he’s gonna be a dick about it.”

“Whaddya mean.”

“Whenever I get a ride from him I get shit about the possibility of being late. And I am so fucking punctual, thank you very much.”

“S’cause you’re a priss.”

“I will dump your ass, I swear to God.”

Zoro just gave his usual smirk, absolutely no intelligence behind it, and walked off with both bags over his shoulder.

As usual, Sanji was perfectly on time for his cooking class. That week they had been focusing on proper knife technique, which Sanji was already a pro at, seeing as his father had already beaten the skill into him. They were all assigned dishes that required frequent use of knives. Sanji spent most of the class on autopilot. Once he finished with the exercise, he put great care into cleaning off each of his tools. Sanji idly compared his actions to Zoro’s as he scrubbed. The way he’d spend a better part of the afternoon making sure each sword was in prime condition.

He barely noticed when the class was drawing to a close. He’d only just finished cleaning the last knife when people started filing out of the classroom.

Sanji didn’t fully believe Law would leave him behind but he didn’t care to push his luck. That meant he had to leave immediately. Instead of strapping everything in it’s spot like usual, Sanji just put things vaguely in their place. Everything else was secured, so if he held the briefcase steady the knives shouldn’t jostle around too much. He settled on fixing everything in when he was in Law’s dorm room.

Immediately after stepping through the front doors, Sanji nearly ran into a beautiful lady making her way out. Sanji simply couldn’t let her be crashed into. So he did the noble thing and swerved off into the wall.

His right shoulder hit cheap plaster and his briefcase spilled out of his hands. The clasp keeping it closed gave out and opened after the first bounce, the second bounce spilling it’s unclasped contents. Sanji immediately dove to hurry everything back into the briefcase. He could feel his precious cooking tools rotting with various floor diseases each second.

The last of the knives were secured into their respective sections, Sanji vowing to never skimp on their safety again, when a tentative voice came up to his left. “Uhm, you, uh, missed one.”

“Excuse me, Miss?”

For some reason that made the lady pull back away from him. She held up something higher for Sanji see, “You forgot one…” In her hand was a normal knife with an ornate handle, a leather sheath pulled over the blade. Blue fish had been carved and painted into the wood. Zoro gave it to him for their anniversary and would be pissed if Sanji had lost it. Leave it to a brute to sulk over a missing dangerous weapon.

Sanji didn’t even realize it had fallen out of his pocket when he stumbled. He graciously, and carefully, took the knife from her hands and slide it into his jacket pocket. “You are very observant, Mademoiselle. Though I should expect nothing less from an intelligent and beautiful lady such as yourself. Thank you so very much.” He tipped his head in her direction and headed towards the elevators once again.

-

(5) His out of school dangerous activities: One of his suspected gang members, witnesses heard Law call him Ace, recalled the previous night's events while sitting in on one of the Organic Chemistry classes.

Zoro got arrested. Which would already be ridiculous on its own, but on top of that it was for shoplifting. At that point it was an insult to Nami who spent a good amount of her time teaching the group how to steal without getting caught. Now the entire crew had to pile into the Going Merry and make the trek to a police office. Disgusting. They walked into the building and were greeted by a fist to the skull of Ace, Sabo and Luffy. The fist being accompanied by the shout, “Fist of Love!”

Needless to say they were all pretty pissed at Zoro when they finally left the station.

“Are you a fucking moron? Did my training mean nothing to you!? I even did that for free. That was a gift. You hear me, Zoro? A gift!” Nami was trying to berate Zoro, but it was somewhat hard when Zoro was in the very back and Nami was wedged in the passenger seat. Yet she still managed to hear Zoro’s grumblings over the group.

It was a bit of a chore trying to fit everyone in Usopp’s van. They did it. But it took fair amount of climbing through windows and wedging feet out of them just to sit down. The basic idea was, the larger your body the farther from the front you sit. The only exception was Luffy. It was useless to try keeping him in one spot because he will climb over you to get where he wants.

Today he decided he really wanted to look out of the driver’s side window. His face was pressed up to the glass like a small child would. What he was trying to see, nobody knew tell you because Usopp had a fun little habit of going so fast you couldn’t focus on anything going by.

Usopp would get stressed driving with everyone piled in and would consequently start to speed up. He always went way over the speed limit, to the point where the Merry’s frequent flyers wouldn’t even notice when they were speeding. It didn’t help their relationship with the local police. But with Nami on navigation and Usopp’s foot on the gas they could never catch them.

Luffy stared out the driver’s window, highly inconvenient for Usopp, fully absorbed for a good twenty minutes. This was the groups favorite Luffy mode.

The peace was broken when he suddenly started shouting, “On the ground! There was something on the ground!!” It was quick and he only caught a glimpse of something pale on the side of the road. But the fact that he didn’t get a good look of it made it more important. Using Usopp’s face as a springboard, Luffy promptly jumped out the window, the force of it causing Usopp to jerk the steering wheel right.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Usopp has had to deal with similar situations way too often and gotten pretty good at maneuvering out of it. Nobody cares too much about their friend who jumped out of a speeding car. He can bounce. The main focus is whether the rest will wake up in a hospital bed or not. But today there was a ditch directly to the right of Merry, and Usopp did his best to skid along the side of it till she slowed down.

“Luffy, look what you did to Merry!!” Usopp didn’t slam the car door closed. Even if he was pissed, he’d never hurt Merry in the way Luffy had inadvertently just done. “Why’d you jump off my face?!”

Luffy was nearly a mile behind them, still sprinting farther, waving his hands above his head to make sure his friends could see him in the dark. He turned his head around as he ran. “I found something!”

Now Sanji was outside the car, his upper half climbing out the middle window. “What could you even see, you rubber piece of shit?”

He’s feet were starting to vaguely hurt from running half a mile in flips flops. The group had vetoed his adventure idea back in the police station, so he was buzzing for a chance at finding something new. When he saw the flash of color in the window he felt in his bones that this would get people excited for adventure.

As he got closer, the dot in the distance started to take shape. And that shape was a human arm. “I found an arm! Sanji it’s food!!”

It wasn’t often the crew forgot their anger. It took a certain something to distract them from their favorite emotion. And a human arm really sold them on the “giving up on their rage” thing. They’ve found a lot of things on the side of the road. An oil barrel filled with tobacco braided into rope for example. But they hadn’t yet added human body parts to their list. The prospect of seeing a real human arm was extremely enticing in a very morbid way. A few people hopped out of the car to chase after Luffy, while the remaining tried to help Usopp push the car out of the ditch.

Sanji was closest to Luffy as they ran, so he was the first one to start shouting when they saw Luffy lean down and pick up the arm. “Don’t touch it! You’ll ruin the flavor!!”

Nami shot him a look as they ran. Did he really intend on feeding everyone in the car human? After quickly evaluating Sanji’s values and passions, his openness to cannibalism didn’t seem so odd. It wasn’t as if they could find the owner and reattach the thing.

“This must be old cause it feels stale!” Luffy yelled back. He was going to pick it up and run it over to the crew but stopped in his tracks when it held it’s shape after being lifted. Do people hold their shape after death? Maybe that’s why mummies creak.

Sanji and was the first one to reach Luffy, shortly followed by Nami. Luffy turned around and held out the arm with a big bright grin on his face. To his confusion, both their shoulders slumped considerably downwards. And then Nami’s fist crashed into Luffy’s skull.

“My head’s going to swell! Stop hitting me!!”

“That’s a mannequin dumbass!” The two of them could see the crushed look wash over Luffy’s face. He still cradled the mannequin limb in his arms, but his lip jutted out into a pout. The excitement that was so palpable earlier had dispersed in an instance.

Clicking his tongue, Sanji sighed, “We’ll cook some other type of meat tonight, Luffy. Stop moping.”

As the Going Merry puttered towards them, dirt and dents obvious even in the dark, Luffy’s eyes started to fill with tears. “But Sanji… I’ve never had human before. This was‒” He sniffled a bit. “I would have had every kind of meat!!”

Of course that’s the reason Luffy is upset about this. He just wants to fill his meat themed Pokedex. “You know, Luffy, I don’t even know how I would cook a human arm.”

“Well, maybe you could roast it?”

“Or maybe broiling it. That might be good.”

Nami grimaced at their conversation as the Merry pulled up right to the side of them. When the van slowed to a stop, Ace stuck his head out the side window. “What happened? Why’s he crying now?”

The boys didn’t seem to slow in their conversation on how best to cook human flesh so Nami took over explaining the situation. “It’s not real, just plastic. Luffy’s upset because he really wants to eat a human arm.” Nami pulled open the passenger side door. “Wasting all my fuckin’ time.”

All this talk about meat, and different ways to cook said meat started to trigger Ace’s narcolepsy. He had the unfortunate affliction of getting sleep attacks whenever he got too excited about food, which happened to go against his very personality. Sanji had to stop making soup for him years ago. As Ace's consciousness faded, he made a mental note to tell Law what he missed out on tomorrow.

-

(6) Spotted with a gun on campus: A witness describes Trafalgar Law trying to secretly pass a gun to Perona (see No. 4) while on school campus.

Mihawk was a wonderful parent. He gave Perona an enormous amount of freedom to express herself as she saw fit. When she started photographing roadkill corpses she found, Mihawk encouraged her interest in the visual arts. When she used her little brother Zoro’s dead fish, Glub Glub III, as her new earring, Mihawk complimented her courage to dress outside the box. And when Perona found out Zoro was getting his very own sword and demanded a gun, Mihawk handed her a hot pink glock with a sparkle black skull on the handle.

With each sword Zoro got, Perona would get a new gun. She liked to think of it as a tradition in their household. So by the time she was in college, she had three glocks, and all in different shades of pink. Perona only realized it was highly illegal to bring a gun on campus after doing it majority of high school. She continued to bring them though. Who’s the government to tell her what to do?

Perona was thrilled to find out that Law had his own gun. Corazon got one out of concern for Law’s safety, so the situation was a bit different, but in her eyes it was a bonding moment.

The two of them were so used to packing heat while walking down the hallways of their high school that they didn’t think too much about it in college. High school never had ways of checking for guns. They never had a reason to be careful with it.

Luffy and his gang called for a movie night at Franky’s garage and Perona was getting a ride with Law. The area around the dorms was fenced and to get to the parking lot you had to pass through a specific gate. And said gate usually had a security guard stationed at it.

Perona was in the middle of one her rants as they walked. “And it’s so fucking cheap looking. They don’t even try to hide it! The lace industry died and came back as a rotting zombie corpse. Have you ever seen actual, proper, handmade lace?”

“When would I ever touch that shit?”

She started describing her favorite strip of lace when the security guard came into view. It was the same guy as usual, but today he had a dog. Law knew exactly what type of dog that was because Corazon had brought him to the police puppy training when he was a kid.

Law jabbed a finger into Perona’s arm. “The mall cop.”

“Are you fucking interrupting me Law?” Perona snapped.

Trying to keep the conversation at a low volume level, Law hissed back, “Perona, the mall cop brought a dog. Our guns?”

“And? What’s got your panties in a twist.” Perona turned her attention back to her phone, keeping the exact same pace towards the security guard. “Honestly, you’ve lived here for a month already. Shouldn’t you have some sort of safety measure? You’re the one with a stick up his ass.”

Law desperately tried to reel in his anger at that moment. “Okay, then how would you get away with it?” The security guard was just a few moments away from them, and he didn’t have enough good Samaritan points to be caught with a weapon on campus.

Perona skipped in front of him and held out her purse out. “Watch and learn bitch boy.”

Crude nicknames completely average in their relationship, Law ignored her insult and tried to discretely shove his gun into her black and pink purse. Even if Perona’s plan didn’t pan out, at least she would be the one caught with two guns and not him.

Once it was stowed away, she fell back into pace with Law and resumed her rant about machine made lace in the modern world of capitalism. The only reason Law was paying attention this time was because he hoped it would distract him from the fear of getting caught. They were just about to pass through the exit, when the dog went straight up to her bag and started furiously sniffing.

“Excuse me ma’am, but it seems you might have something suspicious in that bag of yours.”

“That is so fucking rude.”

Law wanted to die. That is not how you speak to someone you’re trying to avoid getting caught by.

Perona just kept talking. “Just because your dog is jazzed for some snacks does not mean I brought, I dunno, a gun in my purse.” It was already a well-known fact that Perona didn’t have many things she was scared of, but this felt like pushing it. She unzipped the front pocket and pulled out a small baggie of treats shaped like bones. “They’re doggie biscuits. And in case you’re wondering, no, they don’t have drugs in them.”

“Oh! You have a dog?” The security guard seemed completely distracted from her snark, totally focused on the fact that she owned a dog. “What’s it’s name?”

Law knew for a fact that she did not have a dog. She’d rather take in a wild feral cat than take in a mut.

“His name is Zoro. I’ve had him for years.” Law felt an eerie amount of glee radiating off her. She seemed really excited to be talking about her brother like he was her pet dog. “He’s really into this brand of treat lately, so I just keep it in my purse.”

“I’ve always wanted a dog of my own. What breed is he?”

“A poodle!”

Stifling a snort with his fist, Law tried to play it off by clearing his throat. “Uhm, Perona? We have to start heading out. The groups probably waiting for us.”

“Of course, Lawy-poo. Bye bye Mr. Security Guard. Nice to meet you!” Perona zipped the baggie back into her bag, looped an arm through Law’s, and waved goodbye at the mall cop. Once they were safely in the parking lot, Perona dramatically sighed and said, “Look at me, an unrecognized genius. Really it’s such a shame.”

“Yeah, such a shame. Did you really buy dog treats just to sneak past the security?”

“Fuck no. That’s way too much work. These are for Zoro.”

“What.”

Perona grinned, flashing her oddly pointed canines. “I’ve been feeding him dog treats for months. He still thinks they’re homemade cookies.” She unhooked their arms and skipped ahead, humming. “I told you Law. Unrecognized genius.”

-

(7) Law builds bombs??: While outside the dorms, Law was seen talking to a young man who was holding a sketchy bag. Some witnesses who were there describe seeing an object that resembled that of a pipe bomb. After Law whispered something, the man was seen driving off in a van. I have figured out, after a quick trip to the DMV, that the plates are unregistered.

Courage and bravery are very tricky achievements. It’s all relative really. Sure, Usopp doesn’t take on random muggers every week like Luffy or fight for a women’s honor against fuckboys in the PE locker room like Sanji. But Usopp likes to think of it as having better self-preservation instincts. His bravery shows in a more subtle way.

For example, his conduct in his sophomore chemistry class.

Usopp invents majority of his stuff based on necessity, or at least intense want. He doesn’t usually build things too out of his comfort zone. But sometimes, when all the materials are so nicely laid out for him, there’s this voice in the back of his head saying, “Don’t you want to see if you could?” or “Wouldn’t it be impressive if you pulled off that really complicated, highly illegal, formula?” And that is when Usopp’s true bravery shows its colors.

It’s also one of the only reasons he ends up in trouble on his own accord. Nami was there for the majority of incidents. She was the reason he didn’t end up visiting the local police station for making drug like substances in the middle of an eighth-grade biology classroom.

When they hit high school, Usopp got introduced to Robin and Law. The two of them were odd enough to not question why or how Usopp did the things he did, but sensible enough to know what the next step was. So the two of them, plus Nami, provided a very secure safety net for Usopp’s indulgent habits.

Unfortunately, the safety net that he got way too comfortable in fell apart after his freshman year. Robin’s time as a TA ended and she went off to study abroad for a year, Law graduated and went off to college, and Nami had started quickly losing her sensibility. And to make matters worse, Usopp had just finished Chem class with a homemade pipe bomb in his duct taped backpack.

He could see Nami talking to a hulking redhead along the curb, no doubt trying to weedle him out of his money. “There’s barely a chance of loss, Kid. What are you? A coward?”

Usopp heard Kid mutter something before shoving a wad of bills into Nami’s eager hands. “Just take it ya fuckin’ witch.”

Nami was still grinning to herself when Usopp caught up to her. “Oh, hey Usopp. What’d you need?”

“How do you know I need something? Maybe I’m just here to grace you with my presence. Like a righteous and benevolent god. Just call me God Usopp!” He really didn’t want to confess that he accidentally made a bomb.

Nami only gave him a withering look.

“Okay, so, you know how I’m always pretty quick at the labs during science class, so they let me do whatever I want really with the remaining time?”

She nodded while slowly drawing out her phone from her bag.

“Well, I was watching this crime show last night where they were disarming bombs from all around the city. It was some really impressive stuff. They must have amazing stamina. I couldn’t really imagine myself in that situation, though I’d definitely pull it off. But the real question is for how long? And also taking into account‒”

“Usopp if you don’t get to the point right now, I’m charging you for wasting my time.”

“Basically the show talked about bombs a lot so I’ve been thinking about bombs a lot and now I have a bomb in my backpack.”

Usopp wasn’t able to dodge Nami’s hand in time to avoid her grabbing him by the ear. She pulled him closer and hissed, “Are you a fucking moron?”

“I’m sorry! I just wanted to see if I could do it!” Really, it was the school’s fault for having the materials for a crude bomb accessible in a single classroom. If that’s not a God given sign, then the church down the street’s going to have to close down.

An odd look passed over Nami’s face. A very worrying look. She started speaking in a hushed whisper, rapidly typing away at her phone. “No. This is fine. This is great. I’m going to need you to keep that in your bag for a few hours.”

As soon as Nami described the situation as ‘great’, he knew that he needed to get out of there. While Nami texted away, presumably related to his bomb, Usopp quickly booked it to his van, the Going Merry. There was only one option left to take. He had to take his noble and beautiful vehicle all the way to Law’s college.

Going Merry rumbled into one of the parking spots, sputtering a little as Usopp put her into park, and a noticeable amount of people stared. Usopp huffed. He knew that, deep down, they were all jealous. They all knew that they’d never be able to love and care for a van the same way Usopp had. Kaya had offered to fund Merry’s making but Usopp just couldn’t take her money. So besides the basic shell, everything about her was scavenged, even the plates. She was truly impressive.

Usopp clutched his schoolbag in his arms, careful to not let any bit of that broken zipper expose the literal bomb he was bringing onto a school campus. Oh God, he was going to jail for life.

Blessed with one of those evolved sense of directions, Usopp made his way to where he guessed the medical students would congregate. Which landed him right outside the building with the grossly accurate model of the human body. The one waving at the students walking by. Usopp stood off to the side of the front door, right next where the drainpipe was dousing the already soggy patch of mud.

It was only after a large group of, what Usopp presumed were med students, walked out of the building did Usopp realize that he probably looked shady as fuck hanging around outside a college campus, clearly not part of the student body. Usopp was trying to calm his shaking hands, trying to blend in, when he saw a very familiar pair of eyebags.

“Law!!” Usopp stage-whispered, franticly waving him over. “Come here!”

The immediate scowl that Law adopted wasn’t the best thing for Usopp’s pride, but his survival instincts chose to ignore it. They favored focusing on the bomb that was going to get him arrested in just a few moments. “What do you want Pinocchio?”

Usopp grabbed Law’s arm to pull him in closer. “So, it’s actually kind of a funny story.” Then he opened the top of his bag by the tiniest inch.

“Are you a fucking moron??” Usopp suppressed a snort at how similar his and Nami’s initially reactions were. Law shoved both ends of the bag closed, his fist crinkling the mess of fabric and duct tape. “Why did you come here??”

“Nami wanted me to save it for something that would’ve make me lose my head!”

Law sighed. “Okay, okay. First of all, is it enabled?”

“No, I didn’t connect the last wire, but once I finish with that it should be fully functional. Based on the amount of gunpowder I had at the time, I couldn’t make the chamber too‒”

“I don’t give a shit. Second, why didn’t you just destroy it??”

“You know, I was actually thinking about that very question in the car. Very thrilling car ride by the way, I should tell you about it later. But anyways, I was thinking about what specific parts disconnect from each other and where, and then I realized. I made a bomb. Like an actual working bomb. That’s gotta be worth something right? And if it’s worth something, I can’t just destroy it! Right?!”

To say Law was stunned was to say Law needed to sleep more. It was glaringly obvious that he did not want to know nor deal with Usopp’s situation right now. But at this point in Law’s life, he knew that it would be easier not to resist. Because he will end up helping out whether he wants to or not. The surefire way to get the whole issue out of his hair was to come up with solution and send them on their way as fast as he could. “Fine, you want to keep it? That’s fine. Here’s what you need to do. Go get Zoro and have him take you on a walk around the woods or something. Eventually he’s going to stop and talk about how the trees keep moving, and then you leave your stupid fucking bomb there in the dirt.”

Usopp knew it was a good idea to come to Law first. God, his instincts are amazing.

-

(8) Law is a pedophile: In the ground floor of Law's dorm several people walked past a young boy, probably around the age of 13 or 14. When I stopped to ask if the boy was looking for someone and he said Trafalgar Law, I proceeded to question more. The more he talked, the more suspicious his and Law's relationship seemed.

Chopper had always felt a strong bond with Trafalgar Law, even when he was younger.

The middle school let out earlier than the high school, so Chopper spent a chunk of the afternoon waiting for his friends to be let out. When they became friends with Law, who was in charge of the nurse’s office every afternoon, Chopper saw it as a wonderful opportunity to hang out with one of his close buddies. So, once the middle school finished with classes, Chopper would walk a block and hang out in the nurses office with Law till the high schoolers were let out.

Everyone was upset the next year when their favorite doctor left their campus for another. Who was supposed to tend to their wounds without asking too many prying questions now? The group tried to visit as often as they could, but Law was the only one living on the college campus and it was easier for him to meet up with them.

When Sabo and Koala graduated there was a lot more motivation to visit the college. The two of them enrolled as PoliSci majors and both decided to live on campus. With a total of three people living there, the crew started visiting more. Ace and Luffy were the most likely to head over. Sometimes other people would tag along, but the two brothers were a constant in the visits. If you simply ask for a ride after school, they’d gladly take you.

Chopper had never asked to go with them on his own before. Usually he only went when a large group was planning on visiting. But they had just started talking about future careers and colleges in his eighth-grade classes. He was intent on asking Law what his med classes were like. They all piled into the brothers’ shared Jeep and sped off towards the college.

As soon as they got on campus, Luffy shot out of his seat and into the crowds of students. He was shouting and laughing as people tried to jump out of his path.

“Will he be alright on his own?” Chopper asked from his seat in the back.

Ace just shrugged. “Eh, he does that all the time. We’ll see him eventually.” He kept looking around for empty parking spaces, but there were a lot of people on campus and the school didn’t have much space to offer in the first place. Ace tapped the steering wheel a couple times before asking, “Hey, why not just hop out now? You know where Law’s dorm is right?”

The thought of wandering around a college made Chopper panic a tiny bit, but he did know where to go.

“You’ll be fine. I just gotta park, might stop by Sabo first. But I’ll meet up with you and Law later.” Ace grinned at Chopper through the rearview mirror with price tag stickers stuck to the sides.

Nodding, Chopper grabbed his school bag and slid out of the car. “Okay. Bye bye, Ace!”

“See ya, kid!” Ace waved once and sped off, going way too fast for a parking lot.

While making his way towards Law’s dorm building, Chopper definitely noticed some questioning looks. He knew he looked young for his age. Most people didn’t believe him when he said he was, in fact, a teenager, and not an elementary school student. Chopper just ignored their gazes and tried walking through the gaps in the crowds.

Once Chopper was inside the building, he decided to wait in the lobby. Law probably just finished up his classes and would show up in a few moments or so. All he had to do was wait.

Multiple students would walk by and give Chopper curious glances, most likely wondering why a kid was in the middle of a college twiddling his thumbs. It seemed like some of them wanted to ask Chopper something, but none of them attempted to talk to him.

Then a dark-haired lady wearing one of those dad style Hawaiian shirts walked up to him. “Hello. Are you waiting for someone?”

“Yeah, I’m waiting for my friend Law! Do you know him?”

For some reason hearing Law’s name seemed to startle the lady. She drew on a more serious looking face as she said, “Yes, I do know Law. Can I ask how you know him?”

“Oh, well he worked in the nurses office at the high school, and sometimes, after my school was over, I would hang out with him there. So we became really close.”

“Huh, okay. How long would you hang out with him? Did you hang out with anyone else?”

“I’d hang out with just Law for maybe, two hours?” The middle school let out a whole hour earlier than the high school, and sometimes people would have afterschool activities. Chopper could tell Law felt a sorry for him when he ended up waiting long. “He’d even give me little gifts if I stayed longer! He said not to tell anybody about that though.” Law was a proud guy. He had a reputation to uphold. Even though everyone knows he, deep down, really cares about them, he still chooses to pretend he doesn’t.

The lady started muttering about something being a ‘predator’ and a ‘textbook example.’ Maybe she was distracted by something? “Have you met with him outside of school?”

Yesterday Luffy had announced they were all going to go on a treasure hunt. The trip ended up lasting well past Chopper’s bedtime and he started to grow sleepy. So a small group stayed back in the car to keep him company. Not without some complaints from Luffy of course. The only person who actually succeeded in opting out was Law, using the excuse of having a test soon. Chopper fell asleep on Law’s lap, while he read through a thick medical text.

“Yeah, I slept with him just yesterday!”

There was a collective gasp throughout the dorm lobby.