– Laki –?

  Stuff happened. Life went on.

  If only things were that simple.

  The Bellamy Pirates had lost something that day. They'd lost the unshakeable belief that they would come through, no matter how dire of a situation they found themselves in. That they would always find a way. There certainly had been some close calls in the past, that was true. Enel had nearly won on Skypiea. They'd nearly died at Marineford. Their participation in the Payback War had nearly ended in disaster.

  Nearly.

  The keyword being nearly. Enel had been defeated and Laki's home liberated. Doflamingo had been driven off and Kizaru sent to the bottom of the ocean. Not to mention that they had achieved their primary aim of rescuing Ace. And while Lafitte may have surprised them, the Bellamy pirates had gotten even by contributing greatly to his crewmate's demise. Even in the times they'd arguably lost, it hadn't felt like they were faced by an insurmountable obstacle. Victory had never been that far off, escaping their grasp by the slimmest of margins. Or at least, it had seemed that way. This time things had been different.

  Admiral Kizaru had crushed them.

  Most of the alliance had required intensive medical care afterwards, Muret scrambling to perform emergency surgeries to keep them alive. Thankfully, Law recovered fairly quickly and together, they'd managed to enact what could only be classified as a minor miracle. Nobody had died nor suffered any permanent damage. Admittedly, the former had more to do with Kizaru trying to keep them alive until a future execution than anything else, but they'd come out of that clusterfuck in surprisingly good condition. After all, how many pirate crews could claim to have fought a marine Admiral and survived to tell the tale?

  However, in the face of their utter, undeniable defeat, this had been a hollow comfort.

  That the crew's morale had taken a bad hit as a result probably didn't need to be said. That most of them were confined to the sickbay for weeks hadn't helped either. Negative emotions and plenty of free time tended to be a bad combination even at the best of times. The way some left to brood in isolated places. The way some forcibly put on a brave face for others. The way some channeled their frustration, disappointment and anger into training. The mood was all very much reminiscent of Laki's tribe, whenever they'd suffered a defeat at Enel's hands.

  There had been many of those. Too many.

  Perhaps, that was why Laki recovered faster than most of her friends. She was used to battles going poorly. She was used to losing friends and expecting to lose friends. Now just to be clear, this was by no means a good thing, because going into battle expecting to lose was like a self-fulfilling prophecy. But in this one case, it was a boon, as Laki was able to regather herself enough to help the others do the same. Which she did.

  Starting with Aisa.

  When Laki found her ward, the girl had been in the process of flooding her room in a mixture of snot and salt water. Legs drawn up and her face buried in her knees, Aisa barely reacted at all to Laki's approach, though she didn't resist when the elder Shandian gathered her into a gentle hug.

  "I-I couldn't d-do… hick…anything!" Aisa sobbed into Laki's shoulder. "You all got really, really hurt and a-almost die…died! And I couldn't do anything!"

  "But we're fine, Aisa. We're all fine."

  "You weren't moving, Laki! Your voice had gone so quiet! And it was getting smaller and smaller and I didn't know what to do!" Little hands gripped the front of Laki's blouse, their trembles clearly palpable through the purple fabric. "I-I didn't know what to do except hide inside Bellamy!"

  "There, there." Laki whispered, running one hand comfortingly through the crying girl's hair. "You did the right thing."

  "I could feel him going after our friends after he left. Lily, Sarquiss, Eddy and the others all screaming in pain. And all I could think of was how much I hoped the bad man wouldn't find me!"

  "And I'm glad he didn't."

  "He did though. He knew exactly where I was. You know that too, Laki." Aisa accused, pulling back a bit. "I'm not stupid."

  "Yes, you're very smart Aisa."

  "Didn't help me very much. What use is it if I can't think of a way to help?"

  "But you did help a lot. If it weren't for you, we'd be in a much worse situation right now." Laki replied. "Don't you remember how surprised he was when you hit him?"

  "…yeah." Aisa slowly nodded.

  "And you shared your haki with Bellamy, which helped a lot." Laki continued, carefully cradling her ward's face between her two hands. "Bellamy even said so."

  "…yeah." Aisa nodded again; this time slightly harder.

  "You did really well, Aisa. Better than anybody could have asked of you." With that, Laki slowly leaned forward to bring her forehead gently against Aisa's own. The girl relaxed ever so slightly at the familiar ritual, one which they'd repeated since Laki had taken over as her guardian.

  "I was so scared, Laki." Aisa confessed.

  "Me too, Aisa. Me too."

  "I didn't feel very brave."

  "But you were. You still fought despite being afraid." Laki said, wiping away a tear that threatened to escape Aisa's eye. "That's true bravery."

  "…really?"

  "You can ask anybody you want and I'm sure they'll tell you the same." Laki nodded. "You were a brave shandian warrior, Aisa. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

  "But…"

  "Not even yourself."

  Aisa eventually fell asleep, lulled into slumber by Laki's lullaby. Treading across the floor silent as a cat, Laki stepped out of the room and closed the door behind her, before leaning her weight against it. The sky was wonderfully bright and clear. What she had told Aisa was the truth. Laki hadn't lied and she had meant every word. But it also wasn't everything.

  The Admiral had been too strong for them this time. Ergo, the Bellamy Pirates would have to get stronger in order to be ready when he inevitably came after them again. But that wasn't what Aisa needed to hear right now. Nor was the burden of protecting the crew one that should be laid on a child's shoulders, no matter how talented. No, that duty belonged to the adults in the room.

  Adults like Laki.

  Laki herself had put on a wholly inadequate performance in her own opinion. Irrespective of how much stronger she'd gotten since leaving her home, irrespective of how much more capable she was now of beating Enel like the village drum… she'd been unable to do her job. Briefly providing covering fire for Bellamy's approach and being taken out first didn't classify as a job well done.

  Which meant that Laki needed to do more. Laki needed to be capable of doing more.

  Having a super powerful rifle definitely helped, but raw firepower had never been her forte. It had been agility and dial warfare. She'd been putting it off because there had been others who may have needed Alcier more. However, if Sabaody had proven anything, it was that she needed to drag the alchemist into his workshop and not let him leave.

  She needed her cloud dial skates.

  Yesterday.

  – Bellamy –?

  Just in case you didn't know, I didn't like dwelling on my failures. It was a wholly unproductive endeavor beyond serving as an object lesson in what I still needed to improve. When combined with the fact that I was still in one piece – in both senses of the words – moping around was sure to be quite detrimental to my future prospects. It was a similar argument to how Luffy had been forcibly dragged out of his funk after Ace's death in the original timeline. Had Rayleigh and co not done so, there was no way the manga's straw hat wearing protagonist would have managed to achieve the heights he did after the time skip.

  I knew this.

  Didn't make actually putting that knowledge into action any easier. Just because I didn't like doing it, didn't mean my brain gave a crap. Memories of Kizaru ripping out my jaw, for all the damage it failed to do thanks to my Coil Chassis, kept replaying behind my eyes as did the sight of my friends lying prone on the ground. That level of helplessness had been something I hadn't felt in a long while. (Lafitte didn't really count because I had no recollection of the time I'd spent under his influence.) I had sworn to myself that I wouldn't be a helpless victim. I'd decided that I would become the strongest man alive. Fate had laughed and thrown an Admiral my way before I was ready.

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  Well, fine.

  What was done, was done. I'd stumbled and I'd fallen. The old Bellamy had stumbled and fallen on Jaya. He'd lost everything once before getting back up and coming back stronger. There was no reason the new Bellamy couldn't do the same. When our paths crossed again next time, I was going to give the Admiral a right old ass-kicking.

  Which meant getting off my own derriere and getting to work. Honestly, this was merely a continuation of the same "realization" I'd had after the Payback War, so very little had changed in the overall plan. Kuma had been successfully rescued, despite a few hiccups, so it was now time to fix him. At the very least, keeping myself busy would help take my mind off things.

  Speaking of Kuma, I'd made a happy miscalculation when I'd previously outlined my therapy plan. Law's ability to play switcheroo with people's souls wasn't the result of his awakening. It had simply been a very advanced application of his standard Shambles ability, which naturally meant it was something my ally was far more familiar with than any new trick he'd picked up. Ergo, the chances of success should increase by a significant percentage.

  Of course, that wouldn't mean anything if my idea wasn't feasible in the first place, but Myskina Alcier had admitted to the theoretical plausibility of my plan. He did add that things would be significantly easier if he had access to Kuma's memories in one form or another, but it hadn't been an immediate no. Furthermore, the revolutionaries had been ever so helpful in sneaking a message to Dr. Vegapunk. Dragon had even considered delivering it personally, but an irate Sabo had quickly convinced him otherwise.

  Fortunately for us, the suggested avenue for research was fascinating enough to pique the curiosity of humanity's greatest mind. At least, enough that a Vegapunk was dispatched to meet up with us in secret. Unfortunately for me, I was unable to attend the meeting due to comedic levels of stiffness restricting my body's ability to move even as much as a single a muscle fibre. A side effect of drawing upon the powers of an awakened devil fruit without actually having achieved the awakening itself.

  In all honesty, I probably should have been thankful that it had been a gradual thing, beginning with the hand I'd used to knock out one of Kizaru's teeth, before slowly spreading to the rest of my body over the course of two days. It was an ironic consequence in truth, forcing me into a fixed position for daring to call upon Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle to play fast and loose with my precise location. Then again, this state of affairs wasn't wholly unexpected. I'd experimented with the Tunneling Effect before on my own, so I'd kinda known what was coming. Just, the chance to bypass his defence, if only for a brief moment, had simply been too good to pass on by. Even if it hadn't done nearly as much damage that I'd hoped to do.

  Though, the backlash lasting this long had been an unpleasant surprise. My brief coma after attempting to emulate Schroedinger's Cat had only lasted a few minutes. Similarly, the level and length of stiffness I'd experienced during practice had been much less debilitating. If I had to guess, this was due to my power – or quantum mechanics to be exact – being fundamentally statistical in nature. The more likely the desired outcome or effect, the lighter the consequences of adjusting reality would be.

  Naturally, the more unlikely the desired outcome or effect, the more severe the backlash. I could only hope that achieving full awakening would remove this drawback or at least make the cost more manageable, because being out of commission for weeks after a big fight really didn't sit well with me. I also tried not to think about what my power had judged the probability to be, that I'd be capable of decking Kizaru across the face. Not least, because the answer was most certainly going to be somewhere between depressingly low and non-existent.

  Anyway, due to Vegapunk Atlas only being capable of slipping away for a brief window of time, Bonney and Sabo had gone to the meeting together without me. Alcier, unwilling to leave Olga behind nor willing to risk her safety, had joined the discussion via video call. Which was lucky for Laki, who'd recruited his help for a personal project. Or at least, that's what I was told when Sarquiss came to visit.

  "So, to recap, the entire crew has started training like maniacs the moment they could walk again? Aisa being the exception because she started earlier?"

  "Pretty much. Laki has been spending most of her time tinkering in her workshop, but nothing's blown up yet."

  "Are…are they all fine after what's happened? You know, with the whole being defeated sort of thing?"

  "I wouldn't say that everything is peachy right now, but they'll be ok. A bit shaken up after seeing you carted off to the sickbay but apart from that? Yeah, but most of them have had their existential crisis already. This won't break them." Sarquiss shrugged. "Personally, being turned into a living puppet to fight my best friend was more traumatic."

  "And Lily?"

  "You know my darling. Got dealt a bad blow and came back swinging harder. Last I've seen her, she was having a good old scrap with Eddy and his oversized toothpick."

  "You mean the cursed, emerald sword which he can't quite control and turns my calm navigator into a bloodthirsty berserker."

  "Which is why they're practicing. Whenever Eddy loses control, Hewitt wraps Ed up into a little cocoon and they force him back to his senses."

  "Please don't tell me it's Hewitt's experimental squid again."

  "I could, but then I'd be lying and I'm trying to go straight, captain." Sarquiss joked. "And he even left out the peanut butter this time."

  "…what did he do?" At my question, my first mate's smile turned rather brittle after something flashed by behind his eyes.

  "…he replaced it with wasabi and pickled fish intestines."

  "Dear heavens. Eddy's poor tastebuds."

  "At least he's been making solid progress? That's gotta count for something."

  "…and Ross?"

  "He's with Laki. Something about creating a jet dial pack – or Jet Pack for short– to help him fly. Plus, a couple of gauntlets and boots to add some dial thingamajigs to. According to him, it's supposed to be a combination of interacting dials, including a flash dial, an impact dial, a flame dial and a jet dial just to name a few. Called it a Repulsor Gauntlet for some reason. Kizaru's laser inspired him me thinks."

  "Did you say, he's making a Repulsor Gauntlet?"

  "Don't ask me. He lost me the moment he started speaking technical gibberish. Why? You know something?"

  "No, but the name is intriguing."

  "Now that you say it, it is rather catchy." Sarquiss agreed, tapping his chin in thought. "Anyway, to finish up, Mani has taken Kizaru's advice to heart and is terrorizing the Revolutionaries here at Baltigo Base. At Sabo's request, I might add, to test their alertness levels."

  "And unofficially?"

  "Sabo thinks the Revolutionaries have gone a little soft and he wants to toughen them up a little. I think he's planning something big but he's been keeping things hush hush for now." Sarquiss told me. "As for Muret, she and Law have been hard at work with Alcier on project Kuma."

  "What about Aisa, Rivers and Nero?"

  "According to Instructor Hack, Aisa is a lot more than a mere haki prodigy. She's an all-rounder. Last I heard, they were experimenting with more advanced applications of fishman karate in conjunction with her devil fruit." Sarquiss said in a pleased tone. "As for Rivers, he's been spending most of his time improving the Resonance between himself and Fuza. The madman thinks it'll allow him to combine Fuza's haki with his and effectively double its strength for thrice the power. None of us have had the heart to tell him that this isn't how haki works. At the very least, it does seem to be helping his coordination with Fuza, so it isn't a complete waste of time."

  "Hey, who knows? He may be on to something and end up discovering a whole new ability." It sounded similar enough to Aisa giving me little nudges.

  "That'll be the day I wear pink a tutu all day."

  "I'm sure Lily would love to see it."

  "You think so?"

  "…what about Nero?"

  "He's been focusing on the basics, just like me…wait, was that sarcasm just now?"

  "…"

  "Bellamy! Hey! Don't hide under your blanket like that and tell me what you meant by that! Hey!"