Chapter Text
Law didn’t know how long it had been. He’s gradually losing strength, and the air had become thinner as every moment went by.
Everything was vague to his senses, but he somehow felt that the treasure chest was being carried, and there’s voices.
Cora-san…
He whimpered into the black feather coat.
The treasure chest opened.
Law shedded his eyes from the sudden light. The light wasn’t that strong as daylight, but since Law had been kept in darkness for a while, it caused him temporary flashing blindness. Law rubbed his eyes and blinked, trying to make clear of his vision, and when he saw a vague figure at the opening of the treasure chest, sudden ecstasy skyrocketed in his heart.
It must be Cora-san -
( But why is Cora-san’s makeup on the different side of his face? )
No.
No, it's not Cora-san.
“Hm? There’s something in the treasure chest.”
A stranger’s voice came up from the shadowed figure’s direction, and Law’s blood ran cold. Although he still couldn’t see clearly under the dawning light, the powerful aura coming from the stranger had Law backed up from the opening until he’s all stuck up to the treasure chest wall, breaths quickened so drastically that his head became dizzy.
His guts telling Law that the guy in front of him was extremely dangerous.
(He will definitely kill me if he find out about Amber Lead.)
And Law's mind tensed up to an extreme.
“Yo, who might you be, little treasure?”
The man reached out his finger and poked Law’s chubby cheek, and Law was so vexed and scared that the panic within him took the best of him.
He opened his mouth and bit the man.
“Aw!” the man yelped and drew back his hand immediately and Law gritted his teeth threateningly at the man’s direction with a hiss and curled into a fur ball.
In the next moment, though, he heard a little girl’s gasp, and he could vaguely see a shape of a little child’s head beside the man.
The child, though, gasped again and disappeared in the next second, along with a series of little running pit-a-pats.
“Bec, Bec! The treasure is eating Shanks!”
"I see, Uta. That's good."
"It's good?"
"Yes."
"No, it isn't, Uta! Don't listen to him!" Shanks protested. “Come on, don’t you have at least a bit sympathy, Beckman? What are those teeth made of? Damn…” Shanks blew his bitten fingers in a whiny way.
“I'm just amused that finally even the treasure was annoyed by you," Beckman chuckled.
"But the white patches on his face...since we're pretty near to that area of the North Blue...Amber Lead?" Hongo said in a hesitant tone, and the child tensed up again at his words.
"It's not contagious!" Law blurted out, his voice hoarse from how his voice chords previously overused. "It's not..." he bit his lower lip.
"Huh..." Shanks exchanged a glance with Hongo, after seeing Hongo nodded, and Shanks then set his eyes back to the trembling fur ball.
"Anyway, what are you going to do with him, boss?” Roux asked with a mouthful of food.
Upon hearing his crew's question, Shanks gazed at the fur ball curling against the furthest wall in the treasure chest and was now staring back at him warily with his round, golden eyes. Shanks could sense that the child was trying to hide his confusion and fright, but still the fear had leaked out from his shivering body.
Nonetheless, Shanks had noticed that when the child previously saw Uta, the small body had relaxed a little. By thinking of that, Shanks's heart couldn't help but softened.
“I guess I have some fateful connection with treasures." Shanks laughed lightly.“You’re sent here by fate, like Uta.”
“Oh!” Uta ran back to the treasure chest and tiptoed, peaking through the treasure chest’s opening curiously. “He’s like Uta?”
“Yes. Just like Uta.” Shanks said softly and he leaned forward slightly, reaching out his hand in a gentle manner without hesitation.
Law didn't have the time to react, since he didn't expect that the man would touch him again after seeing the Amber Lead on his face. In the next moment, he felt the warmth and weight on his head…and suddenly, his vision was finally clear under the dim light.
The red-haired man smiled at him.
“ - Welcome onboard the Red Force, little biting treasure.”
(END)