•Black Hat•

•16•

I followed Law as he took me to Luffy.

"What's your name kiddo?" He asked me and I twisted the blade between my fingers irritated, giving a fight with my ego not to stab him with Ace.

"Pearl" I replied.

"Fancy... you thought of it yourself right?" He asked me implying that it wasn't my real name and his rudeness left me speechless.

"Did your father want you to become a Lawyer or something? Because you don't really seem to be going along with the law!" I hissed.

"My father had humor I guess" Law replied.

"And my mother had imagination!" I returned.

I saw his lips forming the word 'bitch' without speaking it though.

"Bitches bite, better be careful!" I told him and raised my lip.

Law didn't say anything else. Instead he unlocked a cabin door and let me in.

"Don't touch him!" He warned me and closed the door behind him leaving me alone with Luffy's unconscious body.

He was wrapped with bandages too. His whole body was white apart from his face. I sat next to him and placed my left hand on his forehead. It was burning, indicating even to me that he had a high level of fever. I stroked his cheek carefully and brushed my fingers through his hair.

"Luffy" I murmured. "Please don't make it too hard for me. I don't think I'll bear to see you crying again, I don't think I'll be able to take it." I whispered and my head slowly came down and touched the sheets of the bed he was lying. "I don't deserve to be alive while Ace is dead. I should have jumped in front of you instead of him. I saw it happening Luffy! I had a vision in which I clearly saw Ace being pierced by Akainu's fist but I did nothing. I was too scared to sacrifice my life for you, too scared to do the tinniest bit to protect you! Why? Why?" I cried and let Ace slip inside my hands. I grabbed it from its hold but hesitated for a moment. I brought him to the level of chest and felt his sharp tip touching my skin over the thick fabric of the sweater. "Forgive me Luffy but I won't be able to be here when you wake up. I won't be able to help you get over your brother's death, like I couldn't prevent his death. Forgive me!" I whispered as I was ready to sink the knife to my heart.

Shambles

With the sound of this word I found myself holding onto a harmless paper towel and Law suddenly appeared next to me and my blade, Ace, floating next to him.

"I thought I gave you a warning!" He said calmly and I kept looking at him in shock, how had he done that?

"My fruit's abilities make me able to control everything inside the room I create. And since I was almost a hundred percent sure that you would do something stupid I made a room when I closed the door." Law explained and grabbed the blade that started falling.

"Please let me!" I begged him and got up to grab my blade from him. Law raised his hand and signed to me with his eyes to sit down again.

"Good!" He said when I sat. "I need him alive" He said referring to Luffy. "and for that purpose I need someone to keep him alive when he wakes up! -Yes he will wake up! Keep him alive and help him get over his shock. Everyone needs someone during their hard times to help them recover. You're going to play that role, you have to!" He said when I was ready to disagree. "I could try to scare you by saying that if I ever learned that Mugiwara-ya committed suicide I would look for you and operate you to death, but I don't think that would work on you" Law added and I didn't know whether that was an attempt of him to be funny. Either way I thought it was too lame for me to even smile.

"Can I have my blade back?" I asked him.

"Did you hear a single word of what I said?"

"Yes I did, can I have it back? Together with all the rest of them?" I asked him again as politely as I could.

"They weren't many left, just three." He said and got my belt out of his back pocket and handed it over to me. "Don't-"

"I won't!" I cut him. "I owe you for getting me, Jinbe and Luffy out of Marineford and for helping them with their wounds! And apart from that I had given my word to a certain someone!" I said and raised the sweater not really caring that my underwear showed, prison had taken all shame from me and wrapping the belt around my waist again feeling its leather sticking on my skin. Then I pulled the sweater's fabric down again and turned to look at Law who's cheeks had taken a cherry like hue.

"Ace too!" I said and he looked at me as if I had said something crazy. It took me sometime to realize that he couldn't understand what I meant. "I mean the blade. His name is Ace!" I explained.

"His?" Law asked and I nodded.

"It's really pretty and strong. It needed a name, it's not just a blade!" I expected him to laugh or roll his eyes disgusted by my sentimentalism but he didn't do either of these things. Instead he handed back to me and said:

"I can take you to his funeral if you want to"

I looked at him speechless. Had he seriously proposed that to me?

"Luffy won't be able to take it-"

"Mugiwara-ya won't come to in less than two weeks!" He interrupted me. "Do you want to go?" He asked again.