-Broadcast-
Breaking an adult's psychological defenses with a single sentence was an art form.
Corazon had just demonstrated mastery of that art.
Learning from his benefactor that the devil Doflamingo wasn't actually dead—Law's initial response was disbelief. Surely this was a joke. A cruel, unfunny joke designed to... what? Test his reaction? Provide dark humor in the afterlife?
If Doflamingo isn't dead, Law thought, his mind reeling, then coming to the Pure Land is a complete loss. I traded my life for NOTHING.
"Impossible!" Law's voice rose sharply, control slipping for the first time since arriving in this white void. "Mr. Corazon, that's impossible! I crush Doflamingo's body with my own hands!" His translucent hands gestured frantically, recreating the motion. "There was nothing but liquefied blood inside him! Even organ fragments were rare! No one survives injuries like that!"
Before his consciousness had separated from his physical body, Law had maintained connection with Kikoku through the Ope Ope no Mi (Op-Op Fruit). He'd felt the internal devastation—the complete structural failure of Doflamingo's biology.
The Heavenly Yaksha should be dead. Had to be dead.
His voice climbed several more octaves as panic set in. "I'm certain! I was absolutely certain!"
Corazon—gentle, patient Corazon—simply patted his shoulder without anger or judgment.
Law underestimates my beast of an older brother, the benefactor thought sadly. Trafalgar Law is still too young. Too inexperienced in the depths of depravity ambitious men will sink to.
"I'm not speaking baselessly," Corazon said quietly. "I have reasons for my conclusion. You've only just lost your life—you don't understand how the afterlife operates yet." He gestured at the white void surrounding them. "Because I remain in the Pure Land, I can sense the spirits of people connected to me when they die. It's automatic. Instantaneous."
His expression grew more serious.
"I didn't feel my adoptive father's soul a few years ago when he supposedly died at Marineford. And I don't feel Doflamingo's soul now, despite you claiming to have killed him."
The logic was irrefutable. Corazon—the old fox who'd spent twenty years analyzing the Pure Land's mechanisms—had no reason to lie. They were both dead. What purpose would deception serve between departed spirits?
His serious expression made it clear: this wasn't speculation. This was fact.
Law felt his worldview cracking like fractured glass.
Doflamingo is still alive? Is it that difficult to kill one human being? We're all carbon-based life forms! Why does that Yaksha have TWO lives?!
He grabbed his head with both hands, fingers digging into translucent scalp. "If that devil truly isn't dead..." His voice dropped to horrified whisper. "Admiral Gin and Luffy are in danger. They're in danger—"
But he was a spirit now. Powerless. Couldn't leave the Pure Land to interfere with living-world events. Couldn't warn his allies. Couldn't protect his sister Lami.
All he could do was pray that his two surviving companions could finish what he'd started.
The futility was crushing.
Law sank to the white ground—though "ground" was perhaps the wrong word for something without substance or texture—and buried his face in his hands.
Memories played through his mind with crystal clarity. Every moment since Mr. Corazon's death. The shift in his revenge target from the World Government to Doflamingo specifically. Years spent living not for himself but for vengeance.
As a survivor of Flevance's massacre, he'd cooperated with the New Marines despite his hatred of authority. Reached secret agreements with Admiral Smoker. Revealed Punk Hazard's location. Helped them capture the SMILE factory and arrest the mad scientist Caesar Clown.
All tools in service of destroying Doflamingo's empire before destroying the man himself.
And in pursuing that goal, he'd neglected his own sister.
Lami. The silver-haired girl who'd suffered under Diamante's "care" for years. He'd genuinely believed she'd died in Flevance's destruction—had mourned her loss while hunting her tormentor's employer—only to discover she'd been alive all along.
That's my fault, Law thought with crushing guilt. My responsibility as her brother. I was blinded by hatred. Obsessed with revenge to the point of abandoning everything else.
And in the end? After sacrificing everything—his crew's safety, his sister's trust, his own life—he'd still failed to kill Doflamingo at the critical moment.
Twenty years of effort. Wasted. Meaningless.
The gap between expectation and reality was unbearable.
Law's spirit form began flickering violently—destabilizing like a malfunctioning lightbulb as emotional turmoil disrupted his spiritual cohesion. The translucent body phased in and out of visibility, edges blurring with each pulse of anguish.
Corazon watched helplessly, unsure how to comfort his younger brother. He hadn't expected Law to become this twisted by vengeance. To sacrifice his life in pursuit of killing someone who'd already taken so much.
"I'm so sorry, Law," Corazon said, his own voice breaking. "I never imagined my death would twist you like this. If I'd known... if I could go back twenty years, I'd say something different." He gripped Law's shoulder tighter. "Revenge for me isn't worth it. It was never worth your life. Never."
Corazon had experienced far more than Trafalgar Law. Had processed his own death years ago. Had moved past anger into acceptance, then beyond acceptance into something approaching peace.
But Doflamingo? His twisted brother had harmed Corazon in ways that transcended simple murder.
The memories remained vivid despite two decades of separation. Young Doflamingo shooting their father in the head—executing him in front of his terrified younger brother. Then decapitating the corpse, carrying their father's severed head to Mary Geoise as a bargaining chip to reclaim Celestial Dragon status.
He'd never considered his cowardly brother's feelings during any of it.
If Fleet Admiral Sengoku hadn't adopted the traumatized child... Corazon probably wouldn't have survived to adulthood.
A saintly Celestial Dragon family raising two children with diametrically opposed personalities, Corazon thought bitterly. There's no washing away the truth. The Donquixote bloodline has fundamental problems. We're either sick or becoming sick—no middle ground.
Law's spiraling thoughts were interrupted by a new sensation.
His spirit body felt... pulled. Tugged by invisible force toward something beyond the Pure Land's boundaries. The flickering intensified—no longer from emotional distress but from external influence.
"What's happening to me?!" Law looked down at his hands as they phased in and out of existence at accelerating rates. "Where am I going?!"
Corazon—the old fox who'd spent twenty years understanding the Pure Land's rules—immediately recognized what was occurring.
His expression shifted. Sadness mixing with bittersweet acceptance.
No more time for reservations. No more holding back.
He pulled Trafalgar Law into a tight embrace, abandoning all dignity in favor of honest emotion.
"Law," Corazon's voice emerged gentle despite the tears streaming down his face. "The time I spent with you during your treatment—those months of traveling together, searching for a cure, fighting to keep you alive—those were some of my most beautiful memories." His grip tightened. "I've always regarded you as my younger brother. Not figuratively. Not as metaphor. Truly as family."
He paused, swallowing against the tightness in his throat.
"Unfortunately, you don't have much time left. This is the last time we'll meet. Goodbye, Law."
Like Trafalgar Law, Sengoku's adopted son had lacked peer companionship in his later life. Had been starved for familial connection with equals rather than parental figures.
Meeting each other in Doflamingo's organization—finding each other across the boundary of captor and prisoner—they'd redeemed each other. Saved each other in ways that transcended simple physical rescue.
The words touched Law's softest, most vulnerable core. Tears rolled down his translucent cheeks—spirit-tears that shouldn't exist but manifested anyway through sheer emotional force.
Corazon's face mirrored the expression, both men crying openly without shame or restraint.
But why is our time together so short? Law thought desperately. Why do we have to separate again so soon?
The pulling force intensified exponentially. Law's spirit was ripped from Corazon's embrace despite both of them trying to maintain contact. He flew backward through the white void, dragged toward the Pure Land's boundary by irresistible compulsion.
"Goodbye, Mr. Corazon!" Law shouted, voice growing distant. "Brother! My brother—!"
Corazon reached out futilely, fingers grasping at nothing as Law accelerated away. The distance between them expanded—ten meters, fifty, a hundred—until Law's translucent form became a speck against infinite white.
Then he vanished completely. Pulled beyond the Pure Land's boundaries into whatever awaited outside.
Silence returned.
The Pure Land resumed its former tranquility—empty, white, eternal.
Corazon stood alone in the void, arm still extended toward where Law had disappeared. Unspeakable sadness etched itself across his features—mixing with melancholy and resignation and profound loneliness.
After several long moments, he lowered his arm.
Sighed.
Lay down on the white ground that wasn't truly ground.
Before closing his eyes, a single sentence escaped his lips—barely audible, spoken to no one:
"Alone again... I'm alone again..."
The white void offered no response.
It never did.
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