a little learning
.
.
A little learning is a dangerous thing;
drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
and drinking largely sobers us again.
—Alexander Pope (1688 - 1744)
.
.
.
Law had always been very dedicated to learning and studying – when his parents had been alive, he had followed them, learned from them, studied with them even when he couldn't comprehend the information he was fed through the yellowed pages of a much-used medical book.
The most important thing he learned at the end of his parents' lives was that of the cruelty the world liked to bestow upon its citizens.
The flames drank his sister, the bullets struck his parents.
He learned that no amount of tears would ever make the loss better or more bearable.
As he hid beneath the corpses of his countrymen, Trafalgar Law learned what it meant to fall into despair.
.
.
Doflamingo taught him many things, and some of these he would never unlearn.
He was an influence, a figure with a golden halo to Law during his darkest times. He learned practical things; he learned swordsmanship, fistfights, medicine.
He learned his own weaknesses and worked to get rid of them.
He learned what it was like to feel invincible.
"That's a good boy," Doflamingo would sometimes say when Law made exceptional progress, a large hand ruffling Law's messy hair with indulgent affection reserved to Doflamingo's family – which Law was.
.
.
It was Corazon that Law would always remember and whose teachings his heart would cherish just as much as his parents'.
Corazon wasn't a cool guy; he was a huge dork with a heart warmer than the sun, and the near-fallen Law couldn't stand it, at first.
Corazon – Cora-san – taught him love, laughter, and everything in-between.
He saw the darkest of mankind – hospitals after hospitals, screams of 'get that thing out of here!' – and he saw the brightest – Law, you must have been hurting so bad! I feel nothing but compassion for you.
Corazon saved him from himself in each and every way – see, Law? Isn't my power cool? – and, in the end, Law believed in him when he said he would save Law. That Law would live.
.
.
Doflamingo taught Law that there was no such thing as a happy ending.
.
.
Cora-san! Cora-san, don't die!
.
.
Law had to learn how to rebuild his heart in the aftermath. There was no Corazon to help him do that, not anymore.
He left Doflamingo, the teachings of the heavenly demon weighing his mind and soul while his broken heart wanted to forget.
He wandered, heart broken into tiny pieces, and he learned to survive alone.
And some part of him clung to the thought – I will kill him. I will kill him for your sake, Cora-san, one day—
.
.
He met Penguin first, followed by Shachi and Bepo.
He relearned through them what it was like to have true comrades - ones that depended on you as much as you depended on them.
He never forgot the old teachings; they clung deep and hurt him from the inside to the point where he felt wretched and tainted.
But he learned new things, nevertheless, but what he had yet to learn was the terrible ache the hatred burning inside him would leave behind in its wake.
With death painted on his fingers, he – as a man wised up by life and its characters – waged war.