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    You close the chat with a scowl, frustrated with Traveler’s weird behavior. You’ve tried asking them before if they had any friends, but they would just blow your questions off without giving you a definite yes or no. What’s even more frustrating is how you’ve might have met Traveler and can’t even remember who they are. And then there is their strange reaction to hearing about Ace and Luffy, and even begging you not to let the guys know about them. The more you try to think about the whole situation, the more it made your brain hurt than the homework you were supposed to be working on.

    Your Alternate Intro History textbook lay open beside your laptop, displaying the first human-demon encounter paintings created by humans, angels, and demons. Your first assignment was to compare and contrast these images and write a small essay using your observations. You’ve written a small list of things you’ve noticed, but you struggle with piecing everything together in a way that sounds more intelligent than what you’d normally write. Your professor Nico Robin told the whole class to simply write how you’d normally write, but your concern about ‘truly passing the intro exams’ eats away at your confidence.

    Soon after moving onto the Academy’s campus, you realized Uncle Shanks had been serious about you going to college. At first you resisted, commenting that you’d be just as fine with some kind of minimal wage job somewhere. After hearing Shanks’ “No niece of mine should miss out on going to college!” for the umpteenth time, you confided in both Uncle Jinbe and Law about him. Jinbe sweat-dropped while listening to your ranting, though Law simply smirked and found your frustration with the redhead amusing. When you finally finished and asked both of them if Shanks would ever shut up about you going to college, you were devastated to hear from both of them that Shanks would never let the topic die as long as you weren’t in college. So, in defeat, you told Shanks that you’d attend college.

    The following days after were dedicated to placement testing. You figured you needed to take the tests to see if you’d even be allowed to attend, even though Shanks explained how this testing was to gauge what classes you needed to take to fulfill the basic graduation requirements. You spent many agonizing hours sitting at a desk and filling out test after test. When you had a break between tests, Law would usually be waiting to help cheer you up. The two of you would recount some of your misadventures, laughing at some parts. Sometimes Ace or Luffy would be there as well. When it was just Ace and Law, they were constantly trying to one up each other in terms of who could cheer you up more. When Luffy join, they immediately joined forces when Luffy would try to include you in his more questionable ideas of fun. Shanks came once, and then he wasn’t allowed to visit you for the remainder of the testing since he was caught feeding you answers for your upcoming test.

    Your results were very inconsistent. In some of the subjects you excelled, placing your knowledge at graduate student level at least. In other subjects, you were terrible. And there was a third category of subjects that had mixed results. One such test was Demonic Identification. It was one of the few that didn’t require you to sit at a desk. In terms of identifying if a person was a demon or not, you seemed like a natural born genius. Yet you constantly classified many of the demons using your own names for the different species instead of using the official scientific terms.

    You were surprised to hear that you made it in, regardless of how poor some of the more basic tests were. Sometimes you couldn’t help but wonder if Shanks pulled some strings to help you get admitted. Regardless, you randomly signed up for classes that would help you cover the basics while looking to see what you’d like to major in. You felt like you had little to no clue about most of the subjects you picked, so you asked (begged) Law if he would be willing to help you with the classes you struggled with. The whole time that you begged asked Law to help you, he smirked and teased you. The teasing only stopped when you slyly mentioned going to Shanks or Ace to ask for help instead. Law agreed to meet with you every couple of days to have a study session together. Speaking of which, you were supposed to meet him today for one of your study sessions.



}~{}~{}~{

    Law sits at a laptop, punching in commands to the malevolence interpreter software. He’s been staring at this screen for the past three hours, trying to tease out of it some result that would explain what the hell it was trying to say. In it’s most basic graphical format, your results from the screening displayed as a flat line right in the middle of the screen. However even the most neutral people have some kind of vibration present in their results. No matter how far zoomed in Law went with your results, your line remained perfectly flat. So Law switched to a different graph that showed a scatter plot. This plot is normally used to see what type of creature, be it demonic or angelic, would be most attracted to the person’s blood that was tested. However your results were literally all over. You almost looked like two different scatter graphs overlapping each other, with two of the heaviest clusters of dots on complete opposite sides. Law tries to see if there was a way to separate them, but nothing he’s done does anything to change the graph.

    On a whim, Law decides to plug in a flash drive and open a special sub program that was still in development. The theory behind the software was that there were certain markers that were present depending on what kind of contract a person was in. Law has tested the program previously, feeding in some of the sample data sets and his own data. The samples were accurate to what the developers said would happen, and even replicated how many and what types of bonds Law has accurately. Knowing this, Law feeds your data into the program.

    “What the fuck?!” Law swears under his breath. Your results onscreen made little sense to him. The software showed you had one contract; an incomplete one. In terms of what type of creature you’re contracted to, the results displayed ‘demon’ and ‘angel’. If Law hadn’t seen the developers show off how their program can clearly differentiate between slightly angelic demons and slightly demonic angels, he would have thought this was simply an early bug in the programming.



    Law sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose while his eyes are closed.

    “That’s the second time I’ve heard you sigh like that.”



    Law turns his head far enough to see Dr. Kureha leaning in the doorway, but prevents her from being able to see the screen of his laptop. He uses a shortcut to close the program he’s running and casually keeps his hand over the flash drive.



    “Even when I gave you hellish exams you’ve never made a sound like that,” Dr. Kureha continues. “So what gives?”

    “(name)’s data has finished processing. From what I can tell they’re physically healthy, but their results from the malevolence screening…” Law sighs again.

    “Something tells me you only do that when (name)’s involved.” Law chooses to ignore her, carefully ejecting the drive and pocketing it before she can see the laptop. Dr. Kureha frowns when she sees the graphs on screen. “I take that back; even my exams look easy compared to these results.”

    “I’ve been staring at the data for hours, manipulating the graphs as best I can, just to try and get something I can work with. If this is what the underpaid malevolence testers had to look at when testing (name) when they were little, it was probably easier for them to chalk up this nonsense as faulty software than actual results.”

    “Now remember Law, that those underpaid malevolence testers only have software that looks for a pattern showing a demon is present, and spits out a ‘yes’ or ‘no’. They don’t get to see the same technical data that we have access to. They probably didn’t know any better.”

    “Then why-“

    Law’s angry retort was cut off by a high-energy ring tone. Law pulls out his phone and answers with a low and threatening, “What Mugiwara-ya?” Law listens to the random babbling on the other end, anger shifting to confusion. Soon after that confusion changes to something else, but Dr. Kureha can’t see what due to Law jumping out of his chair and rushing to the exit.

    “Where are you going Law?” Dr. Kureha asks, concern creasing her face.

    “(name)-ya’s in trouble.”



~A few hours earlier~

    Your study session with Law is in a gothic building that looked similar to a church. You slow down, looking at the intricate carvings of the gargoyles in detail. Some had been worn down by age, having a soft look to them, while the newer sculptures were smooth. After casually strolling inside, you’re surprised that the main part of the building is a library. Bookcases tower everywhere, seeming to disappear as they reach the vaulted ceiling. Natural lighting was hard to find, since the light quickly hit a wall of books before getting any further. To make up for this, streetlamps populated some of the intersections between the rows. The overall effect make the library seem like some ancient city of an advanced civilization.

    “Hey, are you lost?”

    Looking to your left, you find a man with green hair.

    “No; I’ve never been in here before,” you say.

    “So you are lost.”

    “No. I just entered the library. How can I be lost if I haven’t even been here before?”

    “If you weren’t lost, you wouldn’t have stood in the lobby with a dumbstruck look on your face. What kind of person gets lost in a place they’ve never been in before?”

    You look at him with a straight face. “People usually find it normal that they’re lost in places they’ve never been before.”

    He clicks his tongue. “Everyone must be use to being constantly lost then.”

    Who is this guy? you ask yourself.

    “Speaking of lost, my friend was supposed to meet me here a while ago.”

    “Ah, a friend of mine also asked me to wait here for him. I’m actually really early, so if you want I could keep you com-”

    You’re hit by a flying mass, which makes you yelp as you fall to the floor. It takes you a couple seconds before you realize Luffy is excitedly chatting away. You try getting up, but he has you pinned. To your relief the greenette comes to your rescue.

    “Luffy, your aim seems to be getting worse. The rest of us already told you to stop flinging yourself at random, haven’t we? Besides, why were you in the library? We agreed to meet here in the lobby earlier.”

    Luffy chuckles, helping you stand up. “I got tired of waiting for you to show up Zoro. I decided to explore, since I figured you got lost in the library somewhere. When I heard you and (name), I decided to come join you guys.”

    Zoro raises an eyebrow. “Oh, so you’re (name) that Luffy keeps talking about? The one who’s ridden Laphans and such?”

    You rub the back of your head, chuckling in embarrassment. “Yeah, I guess I am.”

    “Yeah! They’re awesome!” Luffy pipes in. “Hey (name), why don’t you come hang out with us?”

    “Ah, no, I’m waiting for someone here.”

    “You just told me that you got here early,” Zoro says. “Exactly how early are you?”

    “Just a couple… hours…” you mumble.

    “What! What were you planning to do while you waited?” Luffy asks.

    “Study like a regular student?”

    “C’mon!” Luffy urges. “Come meet our friends! Just for a little bit? Please?”

    “Just so you know,” Zoro chimes in, “Luffy won’t stop until you say yes.”

    “Fine,” you sigh. “I guess I have some free time to meet the rest of your friends.”

    Luffy goes back to chattering non-stop, where you briefly heard snippets about the ‘friends’ you were going to meet. You hang back, walking next to Zoro.

    “I’m sorry, but I don’t think I caught your name after Luffy showed up.”

    “Roronoa Zoro.”

    “(full name)”, you say, shaking hands. “By the way Roronoa-san, do you know where we’re going?”

    “We’re going to meet up with some friends at a fairy party.”