Seas of Convergence (Trafalgar Law x OC)

The devil's bargain

As I stared up at the ominous island where I’d washed ashore, I found myself praying for death to claim me here and now—anything to avoid going deeper in and facing an even more brutal, violent end. Reluctantly, I took a step forward, every nerve on edge, when suddenly faint rumblings erupted around me, sending lava shooting up in fiery fountains. My heart pounded as I moved further in, the heat around me intensifying with each step.

Then, as if things weren’t bad enough, I saw it—a massive dragon, fast asleep. That was almost the last straw. I fell flat on my backside, clapping my hands over my mouth to keep from screaming. The air was scorching, blistering against my skin, sweat pouring from me even though I had nothing but a thin top on. And now...a dragon? With a fresh sense of terror, I set my sights on the snowy side of the island and scrambled off, too afraid to glance back.

It took me two days of trudging through heat and lava fields to reach the snow-covered part of the island. By some miracle, I’d managed to avoid serious injury, though my skin was dotted with burn marks. Proudly, I reflected on how far I’d come—though the creatures patrolling that lava-ridden land had only added to my paranoia. They all carried what looked like Den Den Mushi communication devices strapped to their hips, and even if they didn’t seem like fighters, they radiated a kind of unease. I avoided them, sensing trouble if I so much as asked a question.

The air turned frigid as I reached the snowy side, and I was quickly shivering despite pulling my jacket back on. The island’s stark contrast of climates was unsettling, a clear sign of some devil fruit power in play. I’d read about devil fruits, of course, but seeing their effects firsthand was terrifying. Snow fell endlessly as I trudged on, and just when I felt certain I’d freeze to death, I spotted what looked like a lab.

I had no choice—either get in or risk dying in the cold. My heart hammered as I knocked on the enormous lab door, my hand trembling despite my best effort to appear calm. There was no way I wasn’t already in their surveillance range.

The door creaked open, and a girl with green hair and bird-like features—wings and all—stepped out, eyeing me warily as if blocking my view inside. "Who might you be?" she asked, adjusting her glasses and radiating a strange, unsettling aura. She wore only a top, somehow unfazed by the bitter cold. Every instinct screamed at me to run, but there was nowhere else to go.

I took a shaky breath, watching white vapor leave my mouth before speaking as firmly as I could manage. "Look, I’m not here to cause any trouble. I just need shelter, somewhere to rest for a while. If you need a hand around here, I have some experience—I worked in a lab myself once. And whatever you’re doing in there, I won’t tell a soul. I don’t even have a way to contact anyone."

She scanned me up and down, arms crossed, before giving a brief nod. "Follow me."

As I followed, I grew more and more uncertain about whether I should’ve come inside at all. The deeper we went, the stranger and eerier the place became. Finally, we turned a corner into a room where a peculiar, gas-like figure was floating—a man, but...not exactly. The green-haired bird girl explained my situation briefly, and he let out an unsettling, shrill laugh.

"Shurororo….what's your name?" he sneered, fixing his unsettling gaze on me.

"Lily," I answered, trying to mask my exhaustion. "Just Lily. Are you interested in my help or not?"

He laughed again—more of a wheezing cackle, really, that echoed in the room. "Shurororo… This lab is vast, far too vast for even a genius like me to run alone! Why, my brilliance is unmatched, even by that fool Vegapunk! So yes…Shuroro… I’ll accept your offer."

As he spoke, I noticed the bird girl inching closer, her eyes locked on me.

"But…?" I asked, sensing something more.

Before he replied, the girl abruptly cuffed my wrists. "Shurororo…" the gas-man chuckled gleefully.

"How exactly am I supposed to help if I’m cuffed? I don’t have any devil fruit powers, you know."

"Shurororo… Oh, I’m sure you don’t." He grinned, his eyes alight with mad delight. "But I trust my instincts, and they tell me if you’re not restrained, you’ll stir up trouble. I’ll be watching you, Lily, very closely."

He launched into a monologue about his experiments, boasting about his success compared to Vegapunk, his voice dripping with smug satisfaction. Finally, he assigned me a list of tasks—fortunately, they were things within my field of expertise. Then he motioned to the bird girl. "Monet," he mumbled, acknowledging her presence as she took her place as my watchful keeper.

As he muttered about “already being swamped with some other troublesome subject," he pulled a human heart from his pocket, laughing maniacally as he stared at it. I raised an eyebrow, unsettled but morbidly curious.