~
Luffy loved a lot of things about his Torao, like his eyes, his voice, his tattoos, Torao's devil fruit powers, Torao's rare smiles, Torao's bear, Torao's interactions with Luffy's nakama. Luffy loved Torao.
~
It was a very calm and uneventful day. The skies and seas were behaving, no enemy ship or Marine ship in sights, such was the perfect opportunity for the Strawhat and Hearts crew to unwind and relax after a daring heist on a Marine facility. The loot was worth it and it was fun, so win-win.
"Oi Luffy! Try this!" Usopp handed a crown to the rubber captain which ensued Nami's wrath on them both for playing before the treasure was distributed.
All the other Strawhats were busy with their own things. Zoro was napping in a corner, Sanji was in the kitchen, Chopper was running about, playing with Usopp and Luffy, Robin was reading a book under the shade on the upper deck, Franky was fixing a contraption, Brook was playing a slow, soothing melody and Jinbei had his eyes trained on the horizon ahead. The Hearts were most also on the Thousand Sunny, with a few staying behind on the Tang to keep it steady beside the Sunny.
Law himself was quietly sitting in a corner on the grassy deck, back against the railing, his favourite medical book sprawled in front of his crossed ankles. He had read that book a total of fifty-six times but still couldn't put it down for good. This particular book was his last connection to Flevance, his home. He had found it in a pawn shop in North Blue and recognized his parents' annotations, buying it immediately. It was no secret to anyone how attached Law was to that book.
Anyone but the sea king that decided to make it's unfortunate appearance rather flashily, flying water all over the deck, soaking everything, including Law's favourite book. It wouldn't have had been a problem otherwise but the book was already very battered and the sea water destroyed whatever was left. The pages disconnected from the binding and got torn into pieces from the heavy impact.
For a moment, Law couldn't see or understand anything, he just looked at the last memento of his parents, his home, perishing before him, a thought that brought back ugly memories. Little spots of red danced before his eyes and he could hear a distant 'gomu gomu nooooo' and Nami's shouts for Jinbei to keep the ship stable or the treasure would drown. Law didn't care much about any of that when he unsheathed Kikoku and opened a ROOM big enough to envelop the entire sea king. Before Luffy's fist connected with the monster, Law had cut it into thousand little pieces, raining them over everyone.
"Torao! I was going to hit it!" Luffy whined bringing his arm back. Law paid him no attention and picked the remnants of the book, just a singular piece of binding, nothing else remained. All the muscles he had worked to relax became tense again from anger, just cutting the beast didn't satisfy him. The damage was bigger than that.
Law silently opened a ROOM and replaced himself with a small rock in his quarters, something he kept especially for shambles. After making sure the door was locked, Law reverently placed the binding on his table and decided the day was a waste to endure now. He kicked off his shoes, threw his hat somewhere and buried himself under the covers. It was then that the actual weight of the situation fell on him. He had nothing of Flevance now, of his parents, nothing to remind him of their vast knowledge and kindness. It was like losing everything all over again, only this time it was slightly worse because he had stupidly made attachments to an inanimate object.
On the deck of the Sunny, everyone was quiet and that was saying something considering they were Strawhats. They were all pretending to ignore or avoid talking about what had happened. Usopp was shaking in his boots, Chopper was clinging to Usopp and Nami was quiet. They had never seen Law act out like that, that feral look on his face right before he sliced the sea king and switched himself away.
