Warning: Slight mention of suicidal behaviour and tendency, and subtle symptoms of depression, all at the very end of the chapter. Kind of, but i wanna cover my bases here just in case.

"Dr. Newgate's room number?"

"Yeah, i was the one who found him earlier," Ace told the reception nurse, before quickly adding, "I just want to check and see if he's alright. Whatever it is that happened to him seems pretty serious,"

"Oh, it was you!" The nurse's eyes twinkled in recognition, her hand already moving deftly on top of her keyboard before her eyes even reached the monitor, "Usually we'll only let family enter first but," she suddenly fell silent, the same time as the rapid typing behind the counter did as she bit her lower lips. With what he just learned not long ago, Ace could piece together what caused this sudden change in attitude, "Well, i'm sure he'd appreciate the visit. And you're in luck, they just finished his surgery. He's in room 251D, take the elevator to the next floor and it's the second room on the hallway to the left,"

Ace thanked her before walking away to the elevator just by the receptionist counter. As he waited, he overheard the same nurse spoke, voice lowered that he barely caught it, "Huh, i never realized that Dean Crocus was Dr. Newgate's emergency contact and medical proxy,"

Another voice piped up, slightly closer than the first nurse, "Yeah, the dean insisted. Said he owed it that much to Mr. Newgate Sr and Dr. Newgate," in a quieter voice, the same voice spoke again, "I think that's a good thing. 5 years ago - you know, on the aftermath of that incident - by the end of the 2nd week, he got virtually no visitor at all. I don't think he got any the last couple of time he ended up having to be treated too. Safe to say if the dean hadn't stepped up, he probably wouldn't be able to name anyone,"

"Don't he at least have friends that we can inform? This isn't like the last couple of times he fainted, he just got out of surgery. He'd need someone to take care of him after he's discharged, don't you think?"

"But who? Dr. Newgate's not much of a social butterfly before, is he? Now he's pretty much a recluse hermit. Even if we want to, i don't think there's anyone to call,"

"That's kinda sad,"

"Isn't it?"

Without drawing attention to himself, Ace turned away from the elevator, and located the stairs instead.

The first thing that told Ace that he got the right room, was that in the midst of the moderately crowded hall, there was a hatted man leaning against the door where his destination should be. And not just any man, this one sported a burnt hat and tattered sleeve that barely concealed a charred arm. When the man turned to face him, Ace could see that the rest of his skin that's not ashen black was abnormally red, the kind of shade no healthy human being should have. Or alive, for that matter.

The man, who is obviously another one of the deceased Newgate children, didn't seem to particularly acknowldge Ace yet. With a surreptitious glance to his vicinity, Ace waited until most people were gone or far enough to hear him, before he approached the spectre and stopped just a few feet away. He waited for the ghost to address him in any way, but all he received was silence, as if he didn't see Ace at all.

Those translucent eyes, even belonging to the unliving, seems particularly lifeless. The skin around it and most of his face were angry red and abysmally blackened, just like the rest of him.

After seconds passed, Ace decided to speak up first, "Uh, you're one of Dr. Newgate's brothers, right?"

A low grunt left the ghost, and he reach up to adjust what looks to be a headphone on his ears. There's cracks everywhere on the previously smooth surface, seemingly beyond reparation, "That voice sounded familiar," he glanced to the side, staring at Ace's general direction instead of meeting his eyes, "You're the young man who Thatch said can see us and saved Marco earlier,"

Staring into his dull, vacant eyes, Ace slowly began to understand what's happening, "I've never seen a blind ghost before,"

"Eyesight's 20/20, at least, until the last 5 minutes of my life. Then it just went up in flames, literally," the man chuckled lowly, with a tinge of bitterness in his voice. The kind of acceptance from someone who lived with his condition for far too long, "Curiel Newgate, respectable hunter and gun expert, now your garden variety spook, at your service,"

"Ace Gol, your garden variety ghost seer, i guess,"

Curiel let out a cackle, this time the gesture sounding much more genuine, "Man, if you'd tell me that when i was still alive and kicking, i'd send you packing to the nearest mental asylum. Gotta see it to believe it. Well, not literally, in my case," with a grunt, he pushed himself off from of door, "Haruta told us he told you our story, and everything else he said to you. You here to talk about it?"

Taking in a deep breath, Ace exhaled along with his reply, "Yeah. Are they all in there?"

"Are you gonna accept?" His eyes might be blind, but the Curiel's unblinking stare was intense, "Cause if you're here to turn us down, i'd understand but it's best if you don't come in. My brothers and Pops had enough bad news today, if there's gonna be one more, i'd rather that i'll be the one to break it to them,"

Ace's stomach felt uneasy, "Did something happen to Dr. Newgate? What was wrong with him?"

Reaching up, Curiel adjusted his hat, sighing, "The basic gist of it? Marco got stressed enough to make a hole in his stomach that needs to be sewed up before it got fatal. And apparently we're cutting it close by the time you found him," he shook his head morosely, and a few pieces of the peeling, burnt skin fluttered down to the ground. Even knowing they won't hit them, Ace still took a step away, "He's always been the biggest damn idiot, but this is pushing it," He sounded both angry and sorrowful. And perhaps, even a little regretful.

Somewhere from the corner, conversation and sound of approaching footsteps echoed through the walls. Ace darted his eyes to the side to indeed, see a couple of shadows approaching, "I… I'll help," he told Curiel, lowering his voice, "I'm not sure what you really want me to do or what i can even do, but i'll help,"

The blind ghost lifted his head, eyes wide and a large, satisfied grin slowly forming on his lips, "Well, finally, some good news," he turned around on an exact 180 on his heels facing the door and began to walk through it, "Come on in then," with that, he disappeared.

Ace stared at the door, and braced himself before reaching for the door handle.

If the amount of ghost in the spacious medicine storage earlier had surprised him, right now, with all of them shoved into this cramped hospital room, it feels overwhelming.

The man he now knew as Edward Newgate took an entire large space by himself at the very front of the room, right across the bed where a long sofa was placed. There's enough space next to him for petite Haruta, looking even smaller as he curled into himself like he did with Ace, and another young boy that looked barely older than him with a twisted, obviously broken leg and blue-ish grey skin. He had his arm around Haruta's shoulder in a comforting manner.

All across the room, amongst many other macabre ghost, Ace recognized some of them: Blamenco, his lower half lying flat on the floor while he somehow still managed to keep the rest of him upwards against the wall, Kingdew, who was staring out of the window with his back to Ace, starkly showing that wound on the back of his head, Izou, who stood vigilantly by Dr. Newgate's bed side with a miserable expression, and Thatch, occupying the one chair on the other side of the bed. He was the first one to notice Curiel walking in, and the first to notice Ace.

He wasn't the first thing Ace really noticed, however; the raven's attention found itself landing on the man on the bed, with the pallor nearly as white as the sheets underneath and over him, and suddenly a twist in his stomach. It felt like it was only the slow and barely there movement on his chest that really separate him from the rest of the translucent corpses all around the room.

"Hi again, Ace," Thatch called out, a wry smile on his face, "Uh, i didn't properly introduce myself before, did i? I'm Thatch Newgate, and this here is my brothers and father. Though, from what i've been told, seems like you know that already,"

There's a movement on one side of the room, and Ace's gaze followed it to see Haruta leaping up from his seat, staring at him intently with pursed lips and an entirely too hopeful expression, "I'm Ace, but looks like you knew that too," he chuckled, though he let the sound died down a little when it sounded a bit too dry to his own ears. He gave the room another glance, finding that each one of them was staring at him - even Curiel, though only to his general direction - and stifled down a sigh, "Look, like i told Curiel, i'll help, but i don't really know what you all want me to do,"

"Isn't it obvious?" one of the men spoke, another sturdy, robust man that's even taller and bigger than Kingdew spoke, his long goatee and wild mane flails erratically at his excited gesture. Along with it, so does the exposed entrails from the cut around his middle, "You can see and talk to us, that means you can deliver what we want to say to Marco. You can tell him that his brothers and father had been watching him and they wished for him to stop beating himself up and feeling guilty over our passing and start again—"

"No,"

The man trailed off at the rumbling objection, his head snapping to where the family patriarch sat. Edward Newgate crossed his arms over the hole on his chest, his lips pressed into a thin line, "We will not inform Marco of our presence,"

"But— But," the man stammered, incredulous, "But why not, Pops? If he knows we're here, then maybe he'll—"

"He'll what, Atmos? He'll get better? How would knowing that his deceased family's ghost is always around him make him able to continue on with his life? Isn't that what we wanted for him? To be able to move on?" aged, exhausted eyes found Ace's own, staring at him with deep unfathomable consideration, "And what makes you think he's just going to believe this young man about it? I know my sons, each and every one of you. I know the kind of man Marco is, as much as i know how reckless he can be. Nothing good can come from him knowing about us,"

Atmos opened his mouth one more time, frowning and obviously ready to object, but in the end, no words came from him. He only sighed dejectedly, before slumping down on the floor, spilling what looked to be flattened intestines to the floor and on to the shoes of the man next to him. Said man, stern faced and muscled bound under the melted skin and charred skin, gave his brother a brief look before gently shaking the spilled organs off from him.

"Ace, was it?" Edward Newgate's powerful voiced echoed once more, gaining Ace's attention back, "Being dead, we no longer has a physical body, and could no longer interact with him. I simply ask that you could be our medium to do what we could no longer do. Just someone to be there for him, to remind him that he is still human, he's still alive and he needs others in his life. This isolation he had imposed on himself does nothing but trap him in his own mind,"

"Aside from us, he… doesn't really have anyone else," Thatch added sombrely from his side, "I know it's hard to believe, but it's always been like that even when before we died,"

Ace's mind flew back to the conversation he overheard earlier from the nurses, "So, basically you want me to be friends with him?"

"Well, that's one way to put it," the pompadoured man chuckled, "I know that this sounds really unorthodox, but we're desperate. We don't want to keep watching him fade away like this. Right now, you're our only hope,"

"Hah, i've never been asked in a movie reference before,"

"One of the many things i missed from being alive," a fond look crossed Thatch's face as he turned to the bed, one that slowly morphed into a bittersweet expression, "Including being able to talk some sense to my stubborn brother before he could kill himself,"

Those words hung heavily in the room, the mere cause of the tense atmosphere, so much that Ace could almost physically feel it.

In the middle of them, Dr. Newgate continued to slumber, unaware of his surrounding.

That morning in the fire station, the alarm blared and with the recent scare of arson case, not a single firemen on duty that day didn't leave the their headquarters tense and alert.

Over an hour later, they returned with a much more relaxed gait and attitude, some even laughing between themselves at the memory of sweet little Grandma Gloriosa - more affectionately called as Grandma Nyon by those close to her - loudly berating her granddaughters and hitting them with her walking cane for causing the fire alarm to sound by baking cookies for too long. The memory of her arguing with her granddaughter, Boa Hancock, while her younger sisters, Sandersonia and Marigold mourned the burned remains of their creation was all they could talk about all the way back.

But unlike all of them, even to the end of his shift, Ace remained tense, something that doesn't go unnoticed by his coworkers.

"Man, you look anxious as all hell. What's eating you?'," Eustass Kid told him in the locker room, voice muffled as he dug around his locker next to Ace's. He emerged with a can of body spray, one that was advertised on TV to be 200% more anti-perspiration and anti-odour than any other product. It never seemed to work on the redhead, but probably because he kept using it after he's all sweaty and smelly, "Is something wrong with your buddy in the hospital?"

Ace shook his head, fiddling with the zipper of his uniform instead of undressing, "Sabo's fine, he's getting better even. His new doctor said he should be out in a couple of weeks or so,"

"Then did something else happen? You look as nervous as Bepo whenever Law mentioned the word 'shower',"

The freckled male was about to reply - possibly to express offense over being compared to Kid's boyfriend's dog of all things - before the name registered and he thought of something else, "Hey, didn't Law work in Foosha general hospital? He's one of the surgeons, right?"

Kid nodded, dabbing his entire body with a towel that has definitely seen better days. One of these days, Ace will tell him that the reason why no product seems to be able to take care of his stench after work was because he's been doing everything completely wrong and out of order, but today is not the day, "Did he ever mention anything to you about someone named Marco Newgate?" he stood up and walked over to his own locker in search for his bag, where he had kept the ID from yesterday, "He's one of the general physicians there,"

"Marco Newgate? Marco N— Ah, yeah! Newgate," the taller fireman exclaimed, "Yeah, he mentioned the guy a couple of times. He's uh… he's the only survivor from the Newgate Arson, where that conglomerate and the rest of his family died in. A pretty fucked up thing to survive from, not sure to call him lucky or not,' he gave a grimace, and in a way, Ace had to agree with him, "What about him?"

"Did he ever tell you anything about him? Like, the kind of guy he is, or stuff like that?"

Throwing his towel back to the locker, Kid rolled his eyes upward, thoughtful, "Hmm, yeah, he mentioned a couple of things. For one, he was Law's last patient before finishing his residency, and treating someone you know was worse than an exam, apparently. It's he couldn't handle normally - he got carbon monoxide poisoning like most fire victim - but then he kept doubting himself. For example, he told me there was this weird nick and bruise on his neck that he said he can't keep his eyes off from because he thought he caused that little slash on his neck even though logically it might've been cause by debris? He's pretty shaken up after the whole thing but it was a big deal back then, remember?"

'Big deal' was rather underplaying the entire circus around the incident, but then Ace couldn't think of a better way to describe it, "Huh, even Law can feel shaken up, huh?"

"Hah, he made you all think he's some heartless asshole, but i know him long enough to realize he's a marshmallow. Don't tell him i say that though," Kid told him with a grin and a wink, "Hmm, what else is there… Oh yeah, and then there was that fight,"

"A fight? With Dr. Newgate?"

"Nah, not with the doctor himself, he kept to himself ever since. It happened sometime after the fire, the hospital dean was fighting with some guy over being the doc's power of attorney and medical proxy. The dean didn't want anyone else listed, but the guy went as far as trying to bribe him and the old dean just blew his top in front of his staff and the patients. No one ever seen him that aggressive, apparently,"

Didn't the nurses from yesterday also mentioned something about Dr. Newgate's emergency contact and the hospital dean? "Bribing to be someone's medical proxy? That sounds really shady,"

"Don't it? But it kinda makes sense, i mean, no disrespect, but the guy basically is the sole heir to billions of belli worth or wealth, assets and whatnot. Even the news made a whole big deal about it so much that the hospital's put on lockdown from any news crew back then. There's bound to be some people who'll try to take advantage of that, right?"

Kid has a point. And if there are more people like that, could that be why Dr. Newgate became such a recluse?

"Why'd you ask though? That had something to do with what's been eating 'ya?"

Because Ace has agreed to befriend and essentially take care of someone he completely has no idea about on the behest of their deceased family members and has no idea how to even approach this. And now the more he learned about the doctor, the more that nothing about this will be easy.

"Nah, just curious,"

When Ace entered Dr. Newgate's hospital room that evening after his visit to Sabo's, he began to notice certain differences.

The interior of Dr. Newgate's room was identical to Sabo's, and yet it was the little details that made it so much different from one another. Since the first day he was released from the emergency unit and into the current one, Rouge and Koala had taken to making it as homey and comfortable as possible for Sabo by bringing him pillows and a blanket from his bedroom. Everyday, his bedside table was fully cluttered with well-wishes cards from his coworkers, the flowers Koala would bring to spruce up some colour, a gaming console that Luffy lend him so he won't get too bored, and a fresh container of cookies and snacks Rouge would smuggle in for him.

More importantly, everyday, from the minute visiting hours began, Sabo's room will at least have one person accompanying him, most often it being Koala, Ace and his parents, Luffy, Grandpa Garp, Great-Aunt Dadan with the rest of their extended families and friends visiting in rotation, making sure there's always going to be people around. And they'll make sure the room will be full of voices, so much that Ace was sure the amount of time a nurse or doctor that came by the room to warn them about them being a nuisance has exceeded the count from one hand.

Then, on the other hand, this place.

An entire day has passed, but just like yesterday, Dr. Newgate's room was sparse and unnervingly quiet, void of anything personal. No cards, no flowers, no personal belongings, absolutely nothing. Just the sterile bed where he lays, and a tray with only traces and bits of food from the hospital left on the bedside table.

At least his room wasn't empty, because as far as Ace could see, every single one of his brothers and father were all occupying each corner of the room, just like they did yesterday.

But that's the problem: only Ace could see that.

For anyone else coming in, they'd see nothing but empty spaces, and a man sitting on the bed staring forlornly outside of the window.

It made Ace's stomach churn in what felt like pity.

Most of the Newgates had seen him come in, all of them levelling grateful smiles and relieve, as if they hadn't been sure yesterday if he's serious about his agreement. Ace replied with a thin lipped smile, one that fell when Dr. Newgate looked away from the window to train his gaze at him.

If he had looked tired yesterday, right now, he looked completely exhausted. Even the dead all around him seems to have more life in their eyes and smiling faces than him, the only other living being in this room. Clothed in that harsh, bleached smock, he looked much too pale, and everything about him just screams 'wilted and gloomy'. If anyone else is able to see what Ace does, they would've thought the person on the bed was the real ghost.

"Who are you?" Dr. Newgate called out in a weak, monotone voice. He narrowed his eyes, dry lips parting slightly, "….you look familiar,"

"Um, yeah, we kinda met before," Ace told him as he walked deeper into the room, stopping just by the chair occupied by Rakuyo Newgate, whose twisted neck just made it easier for him to look at the bed without even turning his body. He cracked his split open head to the front - and Ace tried to ignore it else he'd wince like he did the first time he saw him do it - before standing up, gesturing to Ace to occupy the chair before sitting by Curiel's side on the floor next to the sofa. Ace took the offer, "I'm Ace, Sabo's friend. You know, Sabo, one of your patients?"

It took Dr. Newgate a while to answer him, and he did it with the same monotone, lifeless voice, "Why are you here?"

Good thing all Ace did along the ride from the fire department to here was preparing his answers for any possible questions. Because, you know, the easy and honest answer of 'your ghost family asked me to' is not an option, "Oh, i just want to check how you were doing. I was the one who found you when you fainted yesterday," he gave the blond man a small smile that he hoped is friendly enough, "You gave me quite the scare there, but glad to see you look better today,"

Well, not by much, but anything beyond 'teetering the thin line between life and death' is good, he supposed.

For a long while, Dr. Newgate didn't say anything. He stared at Ace with the sort of empty stare that could only belong to lifelike, creepy still dolls. Or dead people, "Why?"

Ace blinked, slightly taken back, "Huh?"

The blonde man looked away slowly, facing the other way. His voice was distant, unknowingly staring face to face with a wide eyed Izou as he spoke, "You shouldn't have bothered,"

From where he sat, Ace could see Izou's eyes widening further, his painted lips parting and entire expression a cross between shock and outrage. He wondered if everyone else outside of his line of sight had the same look on their faces. He wondered if he himself had the same look on his face.

"Wait, what—"

"I felt it," Dr. Newgate spoke again in a barely audible whisper, "I was so close…to be with them again,"

He turned again, and this time, something changed in his dull expression. It was anger and spite, emphasised by the bite in his voice that even said in a whisper, Ace could hear much clearer tahan the sudden uproar all over the room, "And you took that away from me, just like that fire took them all away from me,"

Bit of a uh, bit of some sprinkles of mystery there, bit of a foreshadowing for that murder mystery tag.

Thanks for reading!