#brainwaves

You wake up feeling stiff, a wave of soreness washing over your body. Bright lights assault your eyes as you sit up, shielding them while trying to take in your surroundings. Nothing looks familiar, and you can’t recall how you got here. You place a hand down, feeling the cold metal of the table you were lying on. Looking around, you notice bookshelves crammed with medical texts and a table covered in tools, making it clear you’re in some kind of medical bay. But how did you end up here?

A pressure builds in your head as you swing your legs over the table. Pushing yourself off, something immediately feels wrong as your feet touch the ground. You stumble, nearly falling, and grab your head as the pressure intensifies, falling back and knocking over a side table.

“Watch it!”

You whip your head around, searching for the source of the voice. “Who’s there?” you ask, noticing you’re alone in the room.

“Up here,” the voice replies. You spin around, your back slamming into the bookshelf and sending some books tumbling. “Can you stop running into stuff!” the voice grumbles.

“Who are you? What are you doing inside my head?”

“Your head? I have a better question: What are you doing inside my body!” the voice shouts.

You freeze, your heart rate quickening. Slowly, you look down at your hands and body. Two large hands, covered in elaborate tattoos, stare back at you. You’re tall, looking down at an extremely unfamiliar body. You feel a strange disconnect, like your mind is piloting a machine it doesn't understand.

Quickly, you push off the shelf and head to a mirror across the room. The face staring back is worn and tired, completely foreign. “Holy shit!” you exclaim, yanking at your cheek. “Your bags are ginormous! And your hair is so… greasy.”

“Thanks,” the grumpy voice retorts. “Now, who are you, and why are you in control of my body?”

“I don’t remember,” you say, inspecting the body closer, lifting your arms to catch a whiff of salty seawater and raw fish. “God, you smell awful.”

“Hey! Focus!” the voice shouts. You roll your eyes and turn away from the mirror to investigate the room further. “What do you mean you don’t remember?”

You shrug, a flicker of unease in your stomach. “I don’t know. Where the hell am I?”

The voice sighs. “It looks like we’re in the medical bay on my ship.”

“Your ship? Are you like a pirate? And why are we in a medical bay?” you ask, flipping through a notebook on the table filled with scratchy handwriting.

“Stop going through that!” the voice orders. “And yes, this is my ship. I am the captain of the Heart Pirates. And I don’t know why we’re in the med bay.”

You slam the notebook shut, rolling your eyes. “Well, Mr. All-Knowing Captain, what do we do now?”

“If you give me control of my body, I’ll gladly try to figure that out.”

“One, I don’t even know how to give you back control, and two, if I do, who says I won’t just become trapped in the back of your head?”

“Like what you’re doing to me right now,” the voice grumbles. “It’s my body, which means I need to have control over it. Just let go of your hold, and I’ll do the rest.”

“No!” you shout, feeling the pressure in your head grow stronger as the captain tries to push against you. You grab your head and run towards the door.

“What are you doing! Just let go!” the voice shouts angrily.

You close your eyes and shake your head. “No, I can’t.” As you run down the hall, you bump into something. You fall to the floor, thrown off balance by this unfamiliar body, a wave of dizziness washing over you.

“Captain?” the figure above you asks. You look up to see a man in a white boiler suit with a killer whale hat perched on his head.

“Are you alright?” a second figure asks. You look over to see another man in a similar outfit with a penguin hat.

You push yourself up in uncoordinated movement, “Yes… Uh. I’m just fine,” you mumbles, avoiding eye contact.

The men frown. “We were just about to check on you. What happened in that cave?” the one in the whale hat asks.

“What cave?” you ask.

The penguin-hatted man frowns. “We found you passed out in the cave you were supposed to investigate. Are you sure you should be up, Captain? I think we should do a concussion test.”

You quickly shake your head. “No, no, it’s fine! Look, see?” You shake your legs, nearly losing your balance again. “I’m great and in peak health.”

“Oh my god,” the voice moans.

“Anyway, I’ve got to go! Gotta do my captainy thing and check on what’s been going on since I’ve been out,” you say with a forced smile before taking off down the hall. “Have a great day!”

You can feel the voice irritation and annoyance “If those two don’t see that something is clearly wrong, they’re dumber than I thought,” he grumbles. “Where are you going now?”

“To figure out where the hell we are and to find that cave,” you think.

“I already told you: We’re aboard the Polar Tang.”

“Yes, I get that, but where is the Polar Tang?”

“The last thing I remember is stopping at a small island with a village on our way to the Grand Line.”

You reach the door leading to the ship’s bridge. Fresh salt air fills your lungs. Looking around, you see the ship is still docked. You jump off and onto the dock, then take off running up the village street.

“What are you doing now! Just go back and tell Penguin and Shachi what’s going on, and we can return to our normal lives,” the voice pleads.

“No, I don’t trust them,” you say, a vague sense of unease settling in your stomach. "They're pirates."

“Well, I trust them, and if you just give me control, I can figure this out faster.”

“I’m not listening to you, either, Mr. Pirate Captain.”

The voice groans. “It’s Trafalgar Law.”

“What?”

“Trafalgar Law. That’s my name.”

You pause, feeling a bit more trusting of the man. Just then, the scent of cooked food fills your nose. Your stomach immediately growls, and hunger floods your system, a sharp, gnawing pain that seems to echo from some deep, empty place within you.

You sigh and head into the tavern the delicious smell is coming from.

“What can I get you?” the man at the bar greets.

“Whatever that delicious smell is, please,” you smile, looking behind him for the source. The man raises an eyebrow but turns to retrieve the food.

“What’s your name?” the voice asks once the man is gone.

“Uh… I… I don’t know,” you admit, a wave of confusion washing over you.

“So you have absolutely zero memory?”

“I guess.”

“So then, Nameless, what are you hoping to accomplish?”

“Don’t call me that,” you snap.

The bartender stands before you, holding a plate with a burger. He looks at you strangely as you seem to be talking to yourself. You smile sheepishly and take the plate, bringing the burger to your face.

“Don’t!” the voice shouts, and you quickly pull the burger back.

“What?” you hiss.

“Don’t eat that! It has bread on it.”

“So?”

“So! I have a severe gluten allergy! Do you want to kill us?!” he hisses.

You groan and hold up the plate, waving over the bartender. “Hi, I’m sorry, I have an allergy to bread, apparently. Can I get something else?” The man kindly takes the plate and returns to the kitchen.

“Thank you,” Law sighs in relief.

“Yeah, whatever,” you groan as your stomach growls loudly. You grab your stomach in pain and rest your head on the table. “I’m just so hungry. It feels like it’s been years since I last ate.”

“Well, it’s been at most a day for me, so you’ll live,” Law replies, and you can feel him rolling his eyes. “So, if you don’t want me to call you Nameless, what should I call you? Bodysnatcher?”

“I don’t know. I feel like my name started with ‘Ish.’”

“Ish? Okay, Ish, what are you trying to accomplish?”

“Accomplish? I don’t know… to get my own body or my memories back?”

“Well, the only way we can do that is by working together, and if you just give me back control, I can…”

“No!” you shout, slamming your hand on the table. Everyone looks over, confused. You lower your head, waving sheepishly. “No,” you whisper. “I can figure this out myself.” The bartender brings over some rice, which you gratefully accept, shoveling it into your mouth. The simple, bland taste is heavenly; you devour it in a few bites.

“Unlike you, I have a memory and a crew who can help us figure this out much sooner,” Law reasons.

“Exactly. You have a crew, a memory, and a body. I have nothing,” you say, fighting back a tear. “You have no reason to help me. If I give you control, you have no reason to give me back control or find my own body.”

Law sighs. “I promise I’ll do everything I can to get your memories back and to get you into your own body.”

“Good. And you can keep that promise from inside my head.” You stand up, pushing the empty bowl away.

You start to walk out when the bartender shouts, “Hey! You gonna pay for that?”

You freeze and dig through your pockets, finding only lint. “Shit,” you mumble.

“Run!” Law orders, and you push your way out the door. You look left and see Law’s crew, all wearing matching white boiler suits, walking up the street.

“Hey! Captain, wait up!” the giant walking polar bear shouts. Your eyes widen, and you take off in the other direction. “Wait, Captain!” The crew starts running after you.

“Why the hell is that polar bear walking?!” you shout as you sprint away.

“His name is Bepo. He’s my first mate,” Law explains.

“That doesn’t explain how he’s walking,” you complain, feeling Law shrug. Your strides lengthen, and you glide through the streets at an unbelievable speed. “Damn, your legs are so long,” you comment.

“Hey! Stop!” a new voice shouts from behind. You whip your head around and see a Marine chasing you.

“Shit,” Law groans. “Give me control now!”

“No!” you shout, ducking between crowds of people. Suddenly, a sword swipes towards your head, and you drop to the floor. You look up to see an angry Marine standing over you, sword raised to attack again.

“Ish, I need control now!” Law shouts, his voice edged with panic.

The Marine’s sword comes down again, but you roll out of the way, pushing yourself up only to be faced with another Marine, this one with a musket pointed at you. You raise your hands in fear. “Fine!” you shout and close your eyes.

When Law’s eyes reopened, they shifted to yellow and a smirk took over his face. With a quick wave of a hand a a mumble of the word, “Room”, a blue sphere encapsulated the area. With another wave, all the items on the ground floated upwards, then dashed around inside the sphere. Civilians and Marines screamed, dodging the flying debris. Law dropped to the ground and swept his leg under the Marine in front of him, sending him sprawling. He grabbed the musket out of his hand and threw it behind him, hitting the Marine with the sword. That Marine, in turn, dropped his sword as the musket connected with his face, and he fell. Smoothly, Law caught the sword mid-air and stood upright. He cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders, acclimating to his body again. He took a deep breath, another smirk growing on his face, and then he twirled the sword in a wild, rapid series of movements.

When he stopped, he stood proudly. All the Marines began screaming as their body parts became detached, flying through the air. They entered a swirling cyclone of mismatched limbs. Law snapped his fingers again. The blue sphere vanished, and the flying debris crashed to the ground. The Marines, now a comical jumble of parts, took off running as best they could.

“Captain!” a voice cried, and Bepo ran to Law, engulfing him in a hug and lifting him off the ground.

Law groaned, allowing his first mate to swing him around. “Bepo, put me down.”

The polar bear complied. “Sorry, Captain. Penguin and Shachi said you were acting weird, and then you started running away from us,” he whined.

Law rubbed the back of his neck. “I just momentarily forgot where I was. I’m fine now. Sorry to worry you,” he said, turning back toward the ship. “I’ll be in my office. I have some things to work out.”

Law returned to his office, closing the door behind him. He walked to the mirror and leaned in, looking into his own eyes. “Ish?” he called.

“What,” your voice echoed back, tinged with sadness. “You got what you wanted. You’re back in control.” A hollow ache settles in your chest, the cold emptiness returning.

“Look, I made a promise to help you, and I plan on keeping it, but only if we do this my way.”

“Which means I’ll be trapped inside here while you run around doing whatever you want,” you pout.

“We’ll figure this out together. I don’t want you trapped up there either. I won’t do anything unless we both agree, until we get you into your own body and your memories back.”

“Is that why you didn’t tell your crew?”

Law nodded. “You don’t trust them yet, and I get that, but I promise we can trust them.”

“I don’t like being trapped here. It’s cold and feels empty,” you whine, the chill seeping into your bones.

Law sighs. “Fine. I’ll give you control whenever we’re in this office, but outside of it, I’ll stay in control.”

“And when we’re eating!” you ask excitedly.

Law groans, rubbing his hand over his face. “Fine.”

“Then we have a deal.” Law closed his eyes, then snapped them open again, revealing your blue eyes. You smiled brightly.

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A/N:

Thanks for reading I wrote this because of a poll I did that resulted in writing something new and this was the most "New" thing I could think of.

Part 2 is up