He was speaking with one of the head doctors in order to learn more about the ailments common to the island, curious about any other toxic substances that could be on the island. But beyond some poisonous plants, the place was remarkably tame. He planned to go capture some animals to see if they showed similar symptoms to the humans later, but for now he asked if he could shadow her in order to see how they treated the patients normally.
Just as she was agreeing, large hands grabbed Law and he found himself being crushed against a familiar chest.
"LAW-CHAN!"
"Cora-san, I'm talking to Koyashi-ya!" He exclaimed, voice muffled by the man's heart covered shirt.
The man crouched down as he set Law on his feet and Law realized he'd discarded the feathered mantle and donned a Marine coat with gold epaulets draped over his shoulders like a cape. The man gave him a wide smile and Law was relieved to see that it was the only change. "I'm glad you're awake! Have you eaten anything since breakfast earlier?"
Exasperated fondness filled him and he turned to the doctor to say, "I'm sorry, could you excuse me for a moment?"
The woman was smiling. "Of course, of course!"
He looked back at Corazon and smiled. "Yes, I got lunch in the cafeteria. Tomorrow I should be recovered enough to heal ten patients. How are you? Any shortness of breath, coughing, wheezing?"
The man shook his head. "Nope! I'm perfectly fine. I'm glad you woke up, I was very worried."
Feeling guilty, Law jumped up to hug him around the neck. "I'm sorry I worried you, Cora-san. I was just very tired."
"Ah, you're better now, that's all that matters." He said cheerfully as he hugged him back. "Did Kiddo tell you the good news?"
Pulling back, Law looked at him, amused by Kid's new nickname. "That you've stolen them too?"
"Adopted and yes!" He said happily. "I've always wanted a big family!"
"As long as I stay the oldest." Law replied flippantly, causing Corazon to clap his hands and beam at him. Then he asked, "Have you looked into the medical records yet, Cora-san?"
The man was shocked. "How'd you know that's what I'm here for?"
Amused, he replied, "Sengoku-ya told me."
Corazon looked a bit disappointed. "Oh. No, not yet. I just got done looking through the incident reports from a year ago—we finally found the paperwork for the riot…among other things, but that's work stuff and until the investigations done, the details are confidential." He smiled sheepishly when Law snorted. "So who do I talk to about the files?"
"Koyashi-ya, actually." He said. "She's the hospital archivist in conjunction with her doctoral responsibilities. She'll be able to help you."
"Introduce us then!" He said eagerly.
Taking the man's hand as he stood, he led him over to the waiting woman. "I'm sorry about that, Koyashi-ya. Please meet my father Rocinante. I'm afraid he'll be stealing you from me, he's here on business."
She smiled at Corazon and they shook hands. "Your son is a delight to talk to. You must be very proud, him being fully certified so young."
Corazon smiled softly at Law, who pretended he didn't see. "Yes, I'm very proud." Then he clapped. "But he's right, I'm here on Marine business. I need to look into some patient records."
"Of course, if you'll follow me," She agreed and the duo headed away.
Frowning slightly in thought, Law went to go find her partner, Doctor Janal.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~rp~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Cora-san, Buddha-ya, could I speak with you both for a moment?" He asked after they finished dinner and he gave the boys a look.
Kid huffed but said, "Right. Come on, Killer."
The duo left and the adults looked back at Law curiously. "Should I make a room?" Corazon asked.
"Probably not necessary, but I would appreciate it." He replied and the bubble surrounded their table. He leaned forward to rest his elbow on the surface and made sure his hand hid his mouth from potential lip readers. Better safe than sorry. They immediately realized what he was doing and Corazon mimicked his pose, Sengoku leaning forward with his fingers laced in front of his mouth.
Giving them an appreciative smile, he said bluntly, "This country is poison. Anyone that lives here will develop painful and deadly diseases within weeks. The six people I healed today have already been evacuated and an hour ago, we received confirmation that they have been cleared by the doctors over in Barcel Bay. They will be under close observation for the next few weeks in which time I will perform follow up examinations to ensure they have been truly cured." He shrugged slightly. "My point is that over the next few weeks, we will be performing a covert operation to save these people from a lifetime of suffering."
"Why are you telling us this?" Sengoku queried. "It's none of our business where these people go."
"Because the nobles won't give up their iron grip so easily." He replied. "I was nearly shot because I ignored Garbage-ya in order to ensure one of my patients didn't forget to eat. What would such a man do when faced with the threat of his 'subjects' escaping?" He lifted his free hand, fingers spreading for emphasis. "We can't hide it long enough to get everyone away undetected and I'm afraid they will order the fishermen's boats to be sunk under some bogus charges. Then there will be the chance of rumors being spread claiming Mangrove Cove to be another Flevance." He said wearily. "How long will it take you to prove that these diseases are not contagious?"
"We have all the proof we need." Corazon replied. "We'll be submitting the reports to HQ and the surrounding islands tomorrow morning." Then he added softly, "Flevance will never happen again."
That promise hit Law harder than he was prepared for and he looked away quickly to hide it, taking a shuddering breath as he tried to get a grip of himself, hand clenching to a fist on the table. It took a moment, but then the tension left his body and he looked back at the duo, nodding calmly. "Thank you. Eustass-ya, Killer-ya, and I have everything under control so far, but will we be able to come to you for help if we need to?"
"Of course!" Corazon exclaimed in shock while Sengoku just nodded solemnly. "You can always come to us when you need help!"
Nodding with a small smile, he stood up. "Thank you, I'll keep you updated."
They stood as well and the dome vanished.
"Wait, who is Garbage?" Corazon asked in surprise.
"Giorgio Allen Ricardo Bartholomew Andrew Gene Edwardo." Law replied easily. "To avoid calling him by the wrong name, I took the first letter from each name to address him."
"And he tried to shoot you?!" He demanded in outrage.
Law waved it off as they began to head for the exit. "Calm down. He had one of his guards do it, but he was shaking too much and would have missed."
"I have already sent a report of the incident to HQ." Sengoku reassured the man. "A missive should be sent out soon to every base warning against the injury of children or elderly."
"You were there? Why didn't you tell me he was nearly shot?!"
Law side-stepped into an alley unnoticed by the adults and he began to make his way to the scrapyard near the factories. The factories were still billowing smoke and he gave them a distasteful look. They were an eyesore ruining his view of the ocean and they were creating worse patients for him.
He passed through the wrought iron gate and into the maze of parts and scraps. Shards of glass, broken sake bottles, stakes of jagged metal, and various other hazards made passing through moderately difficult and he looked around at the objects curiously. Broken equipment mostly, but there was more metal that could be justified by the relatively small community. He wondered what they did before the discovery of asbestos.
"There you are!" Kid huffed as Law turned a corner and he saw he was digging through one of the piles. "What were you doing, trading war stories?"
"I have ensured their aid." Law replied, ignoring the boy's dramatics. It'd only been twenty minutes since the two had left.
"Tch. You're too trusting." Kid scoffed. "You've been corrupted by Strawhat."
"It seems to work for him." He brushed off. "Anything I can do to help?"
"Yeah, here," He repelled a large metal tub from nearby and Law caught it. "Catch what I throw you." Then he scrambled up a small tower of machine parts, starting to take things apart and throwing pieces over his shoulder.
It was surprisingly fun. Kid didn't pay attention to where he was throwing them so Law had to run, jump, and dive to catch the parts in the tub. He was giggling quietly to himself, breathing heavily from the exertion and feeling pleasantly sore. His vitiligo pulled a bit painfully, but he was able to ignore it.
Then as he was backing up to catch a piece, he tripped over a half-broken cinderblock. "Oops." He said as he crashed to the ground. He made sure the tub wasn't overturned, but as his shoulders hit the ground under the weight, he felt a sharp pain in the left.
The part Kid had thrown was caught by Killer. "Are you alright, Law-san?"
He laughed as he pushed himself up into a sitting position, reaching with his right hand to try and see what stabbed him. "Ah...mostly."
"You have a shard of glass in your shoulder." The boy said as Kid made his way back down. He set the part in the tub and put his hand to Law's arm. "Please hold still." He yanked it out.
"Wow, that was in deep." Kid said in surprise as they looked at the two inches smeared in blood.
Law created a room and began to clean the wound before stitching it closed. "Stab wounds are the easiest to heal." He brushed off as he got to his feet. "So what's all this stuff for anyway?" He asked as he peered into the nearly full tub.
"For the masks." Kid said as Killer tossed the shard away. "We've got twenty so far, but we need at least a hundred."
"Can I help at all?" He asked.
"Probably. Come on."
They led him deeper into the scrapyard where the piles started to become larger and taller, casting them into a dark shadow. At the largest pile, they revealed a hidden door and they entered an expertly crafted metal room that seemed to take up most of the pile. It had only cluttered desks that looked like some engines threw up on them and the walls were made of glass showing the scrap hiding them from view and Law smiled. "It looks just like your room on—" He saw the door at the far wall and his eyes widened. "No way."
Kid grinned widely. "Yup. This baby's a part of my ship. It's mostly built, I just need to make the engine."
"How…" How the hell could they hide something that big? He created a room and made it into a sphere instead of a dome and saw metal scaffolding was surrounding the vessel, basically holding up the scrapyard and the system would allow them to roll the ship towards the edge of the scrapyard once they lifted the drawbridges covering the tracks. It was very impressive for a couple of kids, though he could see where Kid had obviously gone back with experienced eyes to patch weak parts.
He ended the room. "I never suspected you to be capable of such subtlety."
"It was my idea." Killer chuckled as Kid spluttered furiously.
The redhead threw a wrench at them. "Stop pissing around and fucking help me, assholes!"
Chuckling, Law walked over, dodging when Kid recalled the wrench and asked, "What do I do?"