Chapter 29 Brothers Of Gold and Silver

"Stand"

A simple command, something I've been able to do my entire conscious life. Though when it feels like a blade is placed so perfectly on my neck that if I even raise an inch my jugular would be pierced. 'So this is blood lust?'

"Did you not hear me?" An eerily calm voice asked suddenly in front of me, forcing my chin to raise. I'm greeted by the hardened eyes of a killer. 'And I was prey' I couldn't help but hear the thought that slipped into my consciousness.

"So that's it then Law? Knowing your life's on the line and yet you neither run nor fight?" My Captain asked while he took a drag from his smoke while looking down at me disinterestedly.

"Hell where I'm from where we are far more domesticated than anyone here, but they would still run. Cowardly or not they knew what survival meant. Would you like to know what we call someone without a fight or flight response?" He asked though it was more an order than anything.

"W..what?" I asked between shaky breaths.

"Cattle, ready for slaughter"

'Cattle' like my island, forced to mine. Forced to be monitored further, forced to be quarantined... like animals. 'Gunned down in the middle of the day…. Worth less than sick poultry!' I screamed in my mind as my world turned red. The sound of metal meeting sheath as I blasted forward in anger-induced charge, quickly meeting an insurmountable wall, soon my sword was almost blasted from my grasp in a perfect parry I could only hope to match one day.

"Hmmm, so you are neither cattle nor a coward." The Captain hummed in approval, soon my anger reduced along with the pain in my wrist as I looked at him with a scowl.

"So are we done? Did I pass your fucking test!?" I said with barely controlled anger. He laughed for a moment as he dropped his smoke to the ground and stepped on it.

"No, wasn't that a little too easy? Anger always blinds us from our fears, any human could accomplish the same…. With the right experiences" He said before flicking his blade and sending a diagonal slash towards me. Quickly raising my sword in a defensive stance he taught me I began to 'parry' his endless onslaught. Admittedly it was more flailing than actual skill.

"Not to mention that I never said you had to attack... Cowardice is not something to be ashamed of" He said with his infuriating smirk as he slid his sword in my block and flashed upwards. Exposing my stomach and chest as he kicked me across the clearing into a tree.

"Hell, did I ever tell you how I lost these fingers or this giant scar marking my arm?" He asked curiously as he removed his cloak and I couldn't help but widen my eyes at the scars that already mar his body. 'He's not even half a decade older than me….. How many life-or-death battles do you have to fight in order to look like that' I thought in worry as I've rarely seen this side of the Captain.

Quickly raising to my feet I dash forward at my fastest speed showing an overhead slash which I quickly twisted into a piercing attack hoping to catch him off guard. 'Of course, that wouldn't work….. He taught me that after all, the only way I'll land a hit is if I think outside the box he has made for me' I thought in between dodges and poorly timed parries.

"I guess the best way to explain it to you would be by the Sins themselves….. Tell me Law, have you heard of the Seven Deadly Sins of man?" He asked with a curious glean in his eye as he blocked a slash and set a jab that I barely blocked with the hilt of my sword.

"Of course I have, I read every book in my village before I was seven!" I said as I was again reminded of my 'First Tradegy', with a new burst of energy I dashed forward and began my best flurry of blows. Side slash into a spinning overhead swing, a stab into a meticulous retreating guard. Through it all and he merely looked bored, as he parried with one hand on his sword and the other on his chin in thought.

"And of all sins…. Which do you believe is the most dangerous?" he asked as we continued our bout of swordplay in a never-ending cycle.

"...Sloth….?" I asked with ragged breaths, quickly jumping back and using my answer as a chance to collect my thoughts on a counter. 'Not like there's much to think about, he's never let me use my fruit abilities during our spars. Though like he said this time….. He never even said I even had to fight"

"No, the most dangerous Sin is the Lion's Sin of Pride. You think I couldn't have completed my goals without acquiring these in the process?" He asked motioning towards his scarred body.

"No, there are ways around every situation, though for a warrior Pride could sometimes be a greater weakness than cowardice. I chose to fight, yet I do not regret it. Do you understand Law" He said with a sigh as he appeared in front of me in an insane burst of speed, following the wind I was blasted through four trees ending in a pained roll that landed me back where we started as he looked down at me with that same condescending gaze.

"Pure hubris….. If there is an easier way towards a goal it is your job as our leader to find it!" I said with conviction as I met his unblinking gaze. I could see his lips turn upwards for a moment, though that could be the concussion.

"Stand" He ordered once again.

Slowly rising to my feet with the sword he gifted me hidden from his immediate sight, soon I quickly began enveloping it in my power.

"You're a fool of a leader if you believe that your thirst for battle overweighs the crew, as our Captain it is solely your responsibility to return to us. Without you, who would lead?" I asked with a frown as I noticed his eyes widen in a bewildered manner. I knew this would be my one chance to impress him.

"Operation Form One-AUTOPSY!" I yelled as I saw him react all too late before the first invisible slash was sent, soon followed by endless others as I continued to use my anger as fuel as he taught me."AHHHHHH!" I screamed in anguish as my final 41st slash cut through the dust cloud…. Showing nothing but a one-hundred-meter cone of destruction.

"Hmmmmm, you may be deserving of that C rank after all, though your instincts desperately need some work. Though 'Snowball' could definitely take notes on your naming sense" I heard his calm voice behind me that was soon followed by a blow to my neck that forced me to drop like a puppet with its strings cut.

POV CHANGE-KAL

"Stand boy, you talk with resolve yet you lay in the dirt?!" I yelled about thirty seconds after he collapsed from my blow.

"So that's it? Just another Lamb ready for slaughter?" I hated myself for every second of this. 'Sorry kid but I have to know….. Was that really your full potential, weaker than Doflamingo after years to train, a descendant of 'D' but never a Conqueror? No, I refuse to believe it. You're not Luffy, physical pain won't help you awaken. No, it's your mind that's the key, it had to be.'

"Like your friends?" I asked condescendingly as I swear I almost saw him twitch.

"Maybe your mother, gunned down no differently than a rabid dog?" I asked curiously as I was sure this time his hand twitched.

"No, it was your Father that was too weak to protect your mother or your sibling. A father's sole job is to protect the family that he chose to make….. Will you fail as well? Watching helplessly as everything you love is torn from you?" Like magic he pushed himself to his knees, his head down as his arms struggled to hold up his body. Followed by a low growl of anger…. 'One more push' I strengthened my resolve as I finished my 'test'.

"Or was it your baby sister? Too weak to run, too weak to fight….. I believe I've already explained this to you but I will again. Your sister is, no, was CATTL…."

"SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH YOU GODDAMN BASTARD!" Trafalgar D. Water Law screamed in anguish, his head still lowered as he shook with barely controlled rage.His nails left his fingers as he crutched the ground for his weakness, blood gushing to mix with the tears that littered the ground under him.

"Law….. you know I'm right, she had no chance. She was raised as cattle, forced into a box, never to leave. You know it's true as do I, the government chose to thin its herd. Who would stop them? After all, they are all-powerful are they not?"

"I…..wiiii" he wheezed between his shaking rage and tears, an odd choice by the heavens as it began to rain. Seemingly guided by the boys' endless pain and helplessness to the will of the world, as it never drizzled but poured almost as if the Heavens wept for him instead of with him.

"I can't hear you TRAFALGAR!" I yelled with my own fury at the situation, unknowingly releasing a wave of silver energy that stopped just before the boy, merely an inch to the trained eye, almost as if.....

"I WILL STOP THEM! THIS INJUSTICE CAN GO NO FURTHER!" He screamed a guttural thing, his eyes flashing gold as his head flew backward and he screamed with immeasurable fury. Soon gold met silver as they clashed for dominance soon followed by an endless clash of similarly colored lightning, though it lasted no longer than a moment. Soon after the boy's decree the golden lightning left his eyes as he collapsed forward. Nothing was left in the clearing but the charred ground and a young man with Silver hair looking down at the boy.

"I'm proud of you Law .... no matter what happens I'll help you complete that goal" I said with conviction as the water from the heavens quickly mixed with the tiers that fell for the boy that was more oppressed than any other.

"Trafalgar D. Water Law, it's a fitting name" I said with a content smirk as I turned my eyes to the endless down pour that marked the birth of Kings

SKILL UNLOCKED

(NOVICE) CONQUERORS HAKI LVL 10/50- THE WILL OF THE KINGS , THOSE BELOW YOU WILL KNEEL BEFORE YOU AND THOSE WHO AREN'T WILL ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR CANDIDACY FOR YOU ARE ONE OF THIS WORLDS CONQUERORS.

MASTERY:RELEASE A BURST OF POWER THROUGH YOUR RANGE OF OBSERVATION, FORCING THOSE BENEATH YOU INTO A STATE OF UNCONSCIOUSNESS.

This would mark the day that The Holy Surgeon would make his first mark on the world, a Conqueror who wished to only protect those that were oppressed. Truly the most noble of Kings.