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Under the combined assault of Monkey D. Luffy, Trafalgar Law, and Admiral Gin, the invincible Doflamingo finally lost consciousness.
But even in defeat, the Heavenly Yaksha remained dangerous.
The techniques he'd prepared before succumbing—defensive measures woven through his body as insurance—exploded outward uncontrollably. Without conscious direction, they became wild, indiscriminate, attacking everything within range.
Violent white threads erupted from Doflamingo's collapsing form like a swordsman's dying slashes—cutting in every direction simultaneously, seeking targets with mechanical fury.
The two people closest to the fallen Shichibukai faced the brunt of this final counterattack.
Luffy's Observation Haki screamed danger a fraction of a second before the threads struck. He released Doflamingo's arms instantly, wrapping his own limbs in maximum-density Armament Haki to protect his torso. His head received similar coating—jet-black Haki covering skull and face completely.
Trafalgar Law wasn't so fortunate.
His body had already reached its absolute limit. The chest wound. The internal damage from supporting allies. The spiritual and physical exhaustion of using his awakened Ope Ope no Mi (Op-Op Fruit) for that devastating finishing technique.
Perhaps the last fragment of his consciousness had dissipated the moment he'd killed Doflamingo personally—his life's purpose fulfilled, leaving nothing to anchor his spirit to his broken body.
He had no energy left to activate defensive Haki.
A white thread—hardened to steel-cutting sharpness through residual Haki coating—swept through the space where Law floated above Doflamingo's body.
SLASH.
The sound was almost musical. A single clean note, like a blade passing through silk.
Trafalgar Law's body separated.
Horizontally bisected at the waist. Upper and lower halves parting as gravity took hold.
"LAW!" Luffy's scream tore from his throat—anguished, disbelieving. "LAW! NO!"
The Straw Hat abandoned his defensive posture immediately. Kensei activated, manipulating him to to propel toward Law's falling form with desperate speed.
"You can't die! You CAN'T!"
More white threads slashed across Luffy's path. Without Haki protection, they carved through his rubber body—leaving deep lacerations across his back and shoulders. Blood sprayed. Pain exploded through his nervous system.
He didn't care. Didn't slow down. Reached Law's position and grabbed—catching the upper half of his body before it could fall.
The lower half... there was no saving it. Additional white threads had struck during the descent, carving Law's legs and pelvis into multiple fragments that scattered across the Founding Titan's spine.
Even the world's greatest doctor couldn't reassemble that.
Doflamingo's body finished discharging its stored techniques. Kikoku—Law's nodachi still embedded through the Heavenly Yaksha's torso—lost the Ope Ope no Mi's spatial influence and returned to normal.
The former Celestial Dragon's corpse tilted forward, balance lost, and collapsed face-first into a pool of rainwater. The impact created ripples that spread outward in perfect concentric circles.
He didn't move again.
Luffy released Gear Fourth, his body deflating rapidly as the technique's time limit expired. He returned to his natural thin frame—soaked by rain, shaking from exhaustion and shock.
He laid the upper half of Trafalgar Law's body carefully on the bone surface, trying to position him with dignity despite the horrific injury.
Blood poured from the bisection wound. Not spurting—Law's heart had already stopped—but flowing steadily as remaining pressure drained from severed vessels. Internal organs were visible through the opening, some already sliding free from the cavity.
"What do I do?!" Luffy's hands hovered over the wound, trembling, uncertain. "I need a doctor! Where's—I need to find—"
His panic escalated into frantic action. He started grabbing the escaping organs, trying to push them back inside Law's body, operating on some desperate instinct that said keeping everything together would help somehow.
The rain washed blood away as quickly as it pooled. Within seconds, the bone surface around Luffy had turned completely crimson—a spreading stain that marked the exact location of failure.
Even if Chopper flew here right now, some rational part of Luffy's mind whispered, even with a full medical kit... you can't save a dead person.
But he couldn't accept that. Wouldn't accept it.
His hands kept working. Kept trying. Kept hoping despite the evidence.
Gin approached Doflamingo's body first, kneeling in the rainwater to check for vital signs. No pulse. No breathing. No response to painful stimuli.
The Heavenly Yaksha was gone.
Satisfied, the Admiral rose and walked toward Luffy's position. He placed one hand on his friend's shoulder—the touch gentle despite his typically-stoic demeanor.
"Luffy," Gin said quietly. "He's dead. This is the final result on these seas. Law fulfilled his wish—he avenged Corazon personally. He was too tired to keep living. Let him go."
The Straw Hat raised his head. Rain washed down his face, making it impossible to distinguish tears from precipitation. But Gin could feel the grief radiating from the young pirate's posture.
He still can't accept death, the Admiral thought. Five years ago at Marineford, five years later here in Dressrosa... he never gets used to losing people he cares about.
Looking at Law's pale upper torso—skin already taking on the waxy quality of recent death—Gin removed the white coat of justice from his own shoulders. He draped it over Law's body from head to severed waist, covering the worst of the injuries, granting dignity to a man who'd fought to the very end.
A gesture of respect. A thank-you for his contribution to justice, even if Law himself had pursued personal vengeance rather than Marine ideals.
Two living people stood in the rain, witnessing Trafalgar Law's passing.
Luffy noticed something that made his breath catch—a detail that seemed impossibly wrong given the circumstances.
Law's eyes had closed naturally after death. But his face... his expression...
"He's... smiling," Luffy whispered, voice breaking. "I don't know who Corazon is. Don't understand what Law was fighting for. But..." He swallowed hard. "I never saw him smile from the heart before. Not once. And now... like this..."
They'd known each other so briefly. A chance meeting at Sabaody Archipelago. Some casual conversations. Nothing deep enough to call real friendship.
And now they'd never have the chance to build something more.
Goodbye forever, Luffy thought, the finality crushing. I didn't even get to know you properly.
The oppressive rain gradually dissipated overhead. Gin used the Ame Ame no Mi (Rain-Rain Fruit) to drain moisture from the clouds, dispersing the storm system he'd created for combat.
Sunlight broke through—a single ray at first, then spreading wider as the cloud cover parted. Golden light fell across the Founding Titan's spine, illuminating the battlefield's carnage with almost-sacred radiance.
The beam struck Trafalgar Law's covered body.
Under that warm illumination, he looked almost alive again. Peaceful. Serene. As though simply sleeping beneath Gin's white coat rather than lying dead with half his body missing.
Across the world, audiences watching through the Sky Screen descended into despair.
The Surgeon of Death, who'd fought so valiantly, who'd landed the finishing blow on Doflamingo, had died in the enemy's final counterattack. The tragedy of it—the cruel irony—left viewers numb with grief.
But Trafalgar Law himself had no awareness of the global mourning.
When he opened his eyes again, the world had changed.
No more rain. No more pain. No sensation of his body being severed in half.
Just... whiteness. Pure, featureless white extending infinitely in every direction. An absence of everything except existence itself.
Where...?
Before the thought could complete, Law detected movement. A figure running toward him through the white void—distant at first, but closing rapidly with desperate speed.
He tried to focus, to identify the approaching person—
WHAM!
A kick struck his chest with enough force to launch him backward. Law tumbled through empty space for what felt like hundreds of meters before momentum finally arrested.
What the hell?! He pushed himself upright, confusion warring with indignation. Who—
Then recognition struck like lightning.
"Mr. Corazon..."
The man standing before him—the one who'd just kicked him so violently—wore a familiar pink feather coat. Heart-shaped face paint. That ridiculous expression mixing love and combat-readiness.
Donquixote Rosinante. Corazon. The benefactor who'd saved his life as a child.
Looking exactly as he had the day he'd died. Young. Healthy. No signs of aging whatsoever, as though time held no meaning in this place.
But why did he attack me? Law's mind struggled to process the situation. We had no grudge. He loved me. Protected me. Gave his life for—
The memory surfaced with crystal clarity: his body separating at the waist. The sensation of vital functions ceasing. Darkness closing in.
I'm dead. That's why I'm here.
Corazon approached again—but this time without violence. Tears streamed down his face, soaking into the heart-shaped paint, making the colors run.
And Law understood instantly. This was definitely his Mr. Corazon. The man had thrown him around constantly as a child—playful violence mixed with genuine affection, training disguised as roughhousing.
The distant memories felt simultaneously familiar and alien—a childhood that belonged to someone who'd lived lifetimes ago.
"Law," Corazon's voice trembled with emotion. "Why... why did you come here so early? You look barely past thirty!" His hands reached out, gripping Law's shoulders with desperate intensity. "That life was a gift from me! Why didn't you cherish it?!"
The accusation—delivered through tears—confirmed what Law had already deduced.
His physical body was dead. Destroyed. Beyond resurrection.
But before dying, he'd accomplished his life's purpose: taking the devil Doflamingo down with him. Avenging the souls murdered by the Heavenly Yaksha's cruelty.
Law smiled—genuinely smiled—for what might have been the first time since childhood.
He felt... light. Unburdened. Free in a way he'd never experienced during his entire adult life.
"Mr. Corazon," he said gently. "It's okay. Really."
Only the first ten years of Trafalgar Law's existence had contained happiness.
Growing up in Flevance—the White Town—with his family. His parents. His little sister Lami. Those years had contributed nearly all of his positive memories.
Then Amber Lead Syndrome had manifested. The disease had consumed his family one by one, destroyed his homeland, revealed the World Government's complicity in the tragedy.
He'd ended up with Doflamingo's crew through desperation. A dying child clinging to the only lifeline available.
That's where he'd met Corazon. A benefactor who pretended to be mute, who showed love through violence, who ultimately gave his life to save a boy he'd known for mere months.
Corazon's death had granted Law a second chance—stealing the Ope Ope no Mi (Op-Op Fruit) to cure Amber Lead Syndrome, a terminal illness that would have killed him within a year.
He'd been so young then. Time had felt infinite. Now, having reached thirty?
It's enough, Law thought with profound certainty. More than I deserved.
The only regret was his sister. Lami, currently aboard the Thousand Sunny with Luffy's crew. Based on what he'd seen of the Straw Hats' personalities, they wouldn't bully or discriminate against her. They'd protect her. Care for her.
How long will her Amber Lead Syndrome last? The question ached. As her brother—as a doctor—he felt profound regret that he hadn't used the Ope Ope no Mi to treat her condition before his death.
But even that regret was... manageable. Bearable.
Because if given another chance—if time rewound to the moment before his final attack—Trafalgar Law would make the exact same choice.
Trading his life for Doflamingo's death?
Worth it. Absolutely worth it.
"I don't regret it," he told Corazon, meeting his benefactor's tear-filled eyes directly. "Not even slightly. I did what I had to do."
The smile remained on his face—peaceful, genuine, complete.
For the first time in two decades, Trafalgar Law felt truly free.
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