Task:

Marcel looked down at the bodies from the recent battle as he sheathed his katana. As he expected, they all had the same tiger like symbol on their attires that looked just like his tattoo. The area grew quiet once more as the samurai inspected the area, looking back up to the entrance where he fell into. Still sealed shut, and even if it wasn't, there would be no way to reach up there.

Marcel pondered a little, trying to figure a way out until her noticed that the sand covering the ground is lowering. At first it was going down slowly, but still quick enough to see before it began to go down faster. Where the sand was disappearing to it was hard to tell, but that was the least of his worry. The samurai looked up to see a closed doorway on the other end of the room, of course with that same symbol. Law walked over the bodies of his fallen foes to make his way to the door which slowly opened on its own as he proceeded.

Marcel paused at the entrance, expecting someone to come through, but it was nothing but pure darkness once again, except there were no torches lighting up. This went against the all of the samurai's better judgements, but he had no other choice other than to proceed through the darkness, gripping the hilt of his sheathed katana just in case. As he proceeded through, the doorway closed and another tiger like symbol suddenly appeared on the ground of the previous room big enough to fill the entire floor with the soft, but menacing growl of a beast echoing said room.

The entrance suddenly shutting behind the samurai caused him to turn around quickly, but couldn't see anything due to it being completely pitch black. The only sound coming from this dark room was the sound of Marcel breathing until he began to walk forward. He stretched out one of his arms to make sure he wouldn't run face first into any walls. "Having a bit of a vision problem?" a familiar voice asked out of nowhere, causing the samurai to pause.

Law knew who this exactly was. The robbed figure responsible for all of this, but he couldn't see him. "Where are you?" Law asked as he slowly moved his head around, trying to figure out where the voice originated. "The human eye really is interesting, despite its limitations, such as not being able to see in the chasm of darkness." The figure commented, ignoring the samurai's question. Law tried to figure out where the voice was coming from, but there was no luck. It oddly sounded as if the figure was speaking from every inch of this room.

"But there are those who conquered said limitations, and are capable of "seeing" at a farther range despite the condition. Can even predict the actions of others before they even do it." The figure continued to ramble on much to the samurai's confusion. "Enough of this." Marcel interrupted, causing everything to go silent once again. "Heh, my apologies, Law. You came here to seek answers of your step father's death, among other things. I suppose I can show you the answer for your first question. You've earned it after all."

The room slowly illuminated. The first thing the samurai saw...was himself, or rather a reflection, catching him by surprise.

Everywhere he turned, there were nothing but mirrors around Law. On each wall, the ceiling, even the floor was just reflections of himself. "Do you see now, Law?" the robbed figure asked as Marcel stared at the reflection in front of him. "All I see is myself." Marcel responded to, plainly. The figure began to laugh, causing Marcel to lower his eyebrows as a response.

"You asked me who it was that killed your beloved step father. I gave you the answer, Law." the figure responded. "W-what are yo-" before he could finish his question, the figure interrupted by saying, "You. It was you, samurai." Marcel paused with a bit of a shocked look on his face before shaking his head. "How am I responsible for his death?" Law asked as he looked around once more. As he looked back at the reflection in front of him, he noticed that there was someone behind him. The robbed figure.

Law quickly turned around to the figure as the figure looked at him with his arms crossed. As Law approached him, he suddenly disappeared, causing Law to be face to face with yet another reflection, but this one was odd. It looked like Marcel, but beastly, covered in blood with red tiger like eyes which looked no different than his eyes now and two claw marks on top of each other on both of is cheeks. His hair was a bit longer, reaching down to his back with one side colored black and other white. The reflection looked as if it had a mind of it's own, breathing heavily as it bared its fangs.

It wielded two katana hilt first with the blades aiming straight down at the ground, mimicking fangs. Law didn't know what to think of this image and continued to stare on in confusion as the reflection stared back. Suddenly, the figure growled like a ferocious beast and quickly pounced towards Marcel as if it were going to jump out the mirror and attack, causing Law to flinch and almost unsheathe his blade, only to be stopped by the mirror beneath him shattering, causing him to fall into yet another trap.

Law fell back first into a huge lit chamber. Luckily the ground he fell on was soft enough to not cause any broken bones. The glass from above fell to the ground as well, but luckily none of them didn't hit the samurai. He slowly sat up and observed his surroundings. The room was pretty empty, save for two stone tiger statues, one gray the other golden. Marcel grunted a little as he stood back up, rubbing the back of his head.

"That was quite the fall. Good thing these floors aren't that hard." the robbed figure said as he slowly approached Marcel out of nowhere. Law looked at him with a bit of worry in his eyes mixed with confusion and anger. "Oh? What seems to be the problem, Law? Looks like you've seen a ghost, or rather, a monster." he said, tauntingly as he walked past Marcel, putting a hand on the tattoo located on the samurai's arm.

Marcel winced in pain from the touch, causing the figure to let go as Marcel glared at him. "Did that hurt?" the figure asked. Law continued to glare at the figure while pointing at the two cuts under his tattoo. The figure slowly shook his head and continued to walk, making eye contact with the gray tiger statue. "I'm afraid it isn't those cuts that are hurting." the figure admitted as he stopped at the statue, placing a hand on its nose. Law looked over to him, watching closely in silence. "The real pain comes from that sigil you bare."

"Sigil?" Marcel repeated in a questioning tone. The figure placed a finger into the air in an "ah ha" expression before saying, "That's right. You think it's a simple tattoo that runs in your family. I'm sorry to say, but you have no clue how wrong your are, Law." Before Marcel could speak, the figure pointed at the tattoo on Law's shoulder. "It is a curse. A sigil of a recusant. The reason why Niddala lost his arm." Marcel's eyes widened as that name was uttered from the figure's mouth.

How could he possibly know about Niddala and what happened? "The reason you and your mother were banished from Wano, the reason why you're here now, the reason why your mother and your step father died." Law's surprised look turned into a menacing expression after those two were mentioned. "The Mark of the Beast strikes again." the figure said tauntingly, but before Marcel could say anything, the figure was suddenly gone. The room began to shake a little, causing Marcel to look around for the source, only to hear growling as his eyes shifted back to the gray tiger statue which began to shift and move.

The stone tiger took its first step from its stand, staring at the samurai with its soulless eyes. The behavior of this golem was similar to that of a regular tiger, slowly pacing around Law who was standing still, wagging its tail slowly. A low growl can be heard from the beast. As soon as Marcel placed a hand on the hilt of his sheathed weapon, the tiger golem pounced at him.

Marcel quickly dodged with a side step before unsheathing his katana, slicing at the golem's side, barely doing any damage. Law lowered his eyes a little as his attack failed and prepared to dodge once more as the golem attempted to claw at him. The tiger growled and chased after the samurai who simply stood there, waiting for the right moment. Once the tiger was close enough, Marcel jumped up and amazingly landed on the golems back.

Law gripped the hilt of his katana with both hands firmly, raising it up a little before slamming it down, piercing the weapon through the tiger's back. The stone beast began to panic, running around wildly and rushing himself into walls in an attempt to get the samurai off only for it to fail due to Law's grip. Marcel smirked as the tiger's erratic actions lowed down, finally appearing to be getting weak from the attack. The beast finally stopped and keeled over as Marcel took his weapon out of its body. Law tapped the creature with his katana to see if it was dead, which seemed to be the case, but before he could rest, another growl can be heard coming from right behind.

Law turned around to see that the golden tiger statue had gotten off of its spot. It stared menacingly at the samurai with its tail slowly swaying back and fourth. Marcel expected the beast to do the same as the other and pounce at him, but it did something rather different. The tiger opened its mouth and suddenly a small stone shot out, piercing through one of the samurai's thighs.

Law winced a little before the tiger finally dashed towards him, using this as its opportunity to attack. Law barely dodged the sudden attack, nearly falling to his knees, but managed to pull himself together at the same time the tiger shot out more stones. Marcel dodged most of them and deflected one with his katana before he attempted to dash at the beast. But it was impossible as the golem would continue firing its projectiles If the samurai tried to get close.

The beast broke into a sudden rush, catching Marcel by surprise with a quick strike with its claws to the face. Marcel backed up and fell onto his rear, dropping his blade in the process as he held his hands to his face. There were now four cut marks across his face in a side ways fashion. Law removed his hands from his face to see his blood stained on his hands. The golden tiger looked down at the samurai, observing him carefully to make sure he wouldn't make any sudden movements.

His katana was in the middle of himself and the beast which proved to be a problem. Law stared at the beast for a while, not sure exactly what to do. If he tried to go for it now, the tiger could possibly kill him o the spot with its projectiles, but if he waited too long, the tiger might attack anyway. This was looking more like an ominous staring contest at this point, and something needed to be done. A ton of feelings was going through the samurai's head which was not helping the situation at all, despite his step father telling him that holding on to these feelings would be good on the battlefield. This wasn't the case.

Just then, these other words began to echo through his mind, blocking out every other feeling. "Clear your mind, let your instincts do the rest." was what it said. These were words that his actual father, the man that he hates would tell him. Why were these words drilling through the samurai's mind now? Should he trust them? Without a moments notice, without a second thought, without an answer, the samurai quickly dashed towards his katana which would cause the golden tiger golem to shoot out more projectiles.

Marcel almost instinctively dodged them all, with some grazing his arm and face, but he ignored the pain. He got his katana, and began to charge at the tiger, colliding his blade with it's claws. The continued to exchange blows for a while with blood staining the ground and stone chipping away from the golem. Soon, the tiger would slip up in its attempt to pounce Law who would use this opportunity to quickly side step it and with one strong swing, would slice the head off of this stone creature, killing it instantly.

Marcel began to breathe heavily as the golem's body fell over. The samurai would do the same and fall to his back, drifting in and out of consciousness. Law would slowly close his eyes and open them back a couple of times. Once he opened his eyes back up for the final time, he noticed that he was now surrounded by figures all wearing the same robe, looking down at him. The words, "Clear your mind, let your instincts do the rest." continued to repeat itself in the samurai's mind, he attempted to hold up his katana weakly at the figures but he would soon drop his weapon as his arm went limp, falling unconscious entirely.

"Clear your mind....let your instincts...do the rest."

-Exit-