Bitter Tonic (Trafalgar Law)

Three

"No." Dapple frowned, sitting next to her father in the kitchen. Morning light filtered through the open windows, drawing in the cool morning breeze and the faintest hint of the surrounding sea. She shoveled another spoonful of cereal on her mouth, ignoring the presence of Doflamingo in front of her.

"You don't have choice." Corazon marked, holing his pad up to view.

"I don't need your training. There's nothing anyone here can teach me." Dapple paused, head tilting slightly. She squinted. "Except Vergo. I could learn from Vergo."

"Fufufufu... so confident.." Doflamingo giggled, grinning at his niece who resumed eating. A glint in his glasses caught her attention, finding her risking a glance up. Despite the obvious glare of reflected sunlight and the aura of a sadist, the reflection of three children caught her eye. Dapple looked away, knowing Baby 5, Buffalo, and Law were ease-dropping from the doorway. "Have it your way then. You want to learn from the best? Fufufufu, then work your way up."

A pained look crossed Corazon's painted expression, quickly contorting into irritation. His fist raised to glimpse his carbon copy, and Law flinched in the doorway. His pale silver eyes watched as the man readied to hit his spawn, and realized that he was just as violent with her as he was to the others.

Dapple, however, hadn't physically seen this hit coming. In fact, her crimson eyes were trained on a marshmallow in her bowl. What alerted her of the oncoming threat was a tingle, a primal gut instinct that forced her body to move from harms way. Her head tilted upwards as her back straightened, wide eyes amazed as her fathers fist rocketed past her face. It smashed into the lip of her bowl, tipping it and splashing milk and cereal all over his face and the table.

Dapple looked over, still processing what she'd just done, and couldn't stop a smirking lopsided grin. Her fathers face fell even lower at the sight of her cocky expression, his makeup smearing and running down his pale face. His brow twitched, and Dapple found herself laughing. It was a rare sight, even for Corazon. Her crooked smile was a sight to behold, making her stoic features twist into something childish, for once.

"You idiot..." she giggled, reaching across the table to snag a roll of paper towels.

"Why don't you go and fetch Sugar and Monet for me? Fufufufu..." Doflamingo smirked, making Dapple's expression fall. She frowned.

"I'm not your errand boy." She grumbled, sliding down from her seat. Doflamingo chuckled at that, but otherwise watched quietly as she left. When she was gone and the three outside the door followed, he turned his shaded eyes towards his younger brother.

"Observation Haki?" Doflamingo questioned with a look of suspicion. "Now I'm really curious about her mother... Fufufufu..."

"Early stages I think." Corazon scribbled, his painted smile tipped downwards. "I'm not sure she's aware she uses it."

"If she's able to unlock observation at such a young age, it makes me wonder if she can unlock the others as well." Doflamingo giggled a bit, scratching his chin. "And if that's the case, fufufu, she certainly can learn from Vergo."

"You could teach her yourself." Corazon felt his brows twitch, irritated at the mere thought of the vile man.

"True, I could..." Doffy tilted his head, thinking over his brothers proposal. "That's not a bad idea actually... yeah... after I assess her skills, we'll see if she'll accept me as a mentor."

"Oi, creepy uncle." Dapple walked in, an entourage of faces behind her. She gestured back to Monet and Sugar. "They were just down the hall, you could have just shouted for them."

"Fufufu.. what a following you have..."

Dapple groaned, ignoring the faces of Baby 5, Law, Buffalo, and Trebol. Monet and Sugar she ignored anyway, but they were at least wanted. The others invited themselves, much to her displeasure.

"I take it we're here for training, yeah?" Monet smiled, hands on her hips. Doflamingo nodded, making her crack a wicked grin. "Yosh, lets get to it then? Sugar."

"This is gunna be fun!" Sugar chimed, sprinting forward with an open palm. Dapple's eyes widened in surprise, unaware such a sudden attack would happen.

Familiar tingles alerted her body, sidestepping the attack as she'd done the previous day. Sugar, having been dogged last time as well, quickly spun around for another attempt. Dapple had already felt it coming, however, and was quick to draw her knife. The blade twirled between her fingertips like a deadly party trick before it was use to swipe at her attacker.

Sugar yelped and stopped her attack, pulling her hand in to cradle her injury. A clean cut was revealed to the room, bleeding profusely. And yet, despite Sugar's pained whimpers and the blood that slowly dripped to the hardwood floor, there wasn't a single speck of crimson on Dapple's blade.

"Tsk..." she clicked her tongue.

"Pulling a weapon while engaged in hand to hand... fufufu, it's almost disgraceful." Doflamingo a words made Dapple grit her teeth, a nasty snarl pulling her lip up.

"It's not hand to hand combat when your opponent is a devil fruit user." Dapple pointed the sharp tip of her blade to Sugar, and turned her cold red eyes to the small teenager. She scoffed. "I'm not an idiot."

"Indeed, indeed, fufufu..." Doflamingo nodded. Dapple turned her glare to him, locking on to his sunglasses with malicious intent. Doffy held out his hand, gesturing to Monet. "I'm sure you're smart enough to handle another one."

Monet took that as her cue to attack. A well aimed punch was sent toward Dapple's chin, but the blonde now understood the situation. Her jaw lifted and her feet shuffled back, escaping the threat by a mere inch. Monet, unlike her younger sister, was much faster and calculated.

In a sudden chance to try and finally reach Dapple, Monet transformed into the half bird being she truly was.

Dapple, deciding this was a fight she could not win head on, jumped away. A shimmer of black and gold caught their eyes, and emptiness opened beneath her feet. Monet, surprised, flew up and away from the void, and directly into another above her head. The portals closed, and Monet was gone.

"I win." Dapple frowned, standing straight.

"W-where did she go?" Sugar gasped, standing slack jawed. Corazon rolled his eyes and Doflamingo felt his interest only rise.

"She's in the nothingness." Dapple answered, unhappily. "The space between today and yesterday."

"Is she dead?" Baby 5 asked, eyes large and watery. Dapple shook her head.

"She's fine." With a wave of her hand the ceiling portal opened, and down fell Monet with a crash. Her wings flapped uselessly for a moment, before she regained her sense of self. "She's gunna be a little disorientated for a while, the void is a suspension of time space."

"So you're Devil fruit user too, fufufufu..."