Warnings: Dark themes, lots of mentions of death, strong language, human experimentation, experimenting on children, child abduction, graphic descriptions of experimenting, lots of needles, lots of violence, poor descriptions of panic attacks, descriptions of blood, rated M for safety.
*If I need to add anymore warnings please tell me in the reviews or a PM and I'll be sure to add it!*
Chapter 93: A Day in the Infirmary
Marco blinked slowly, processing what Sabo was telling him. Even though he only knew of this man, he still knew the significance he held to the brothers, all the horrible things he'd done, and to learn that they hadn't taken him down for good back at the brothers' facility gave him mixed feelings.
"It says he was here two days ago and left yesterday. I still don't know what these abbreviations mean, but he's got the highest numbers I've seen so far next to SST; 1,924. The highest I saw before that was 100." Sabo said, voice strained and quiet as he spoke, looking back down at the file with wide eyes.
"Does it say-"
"Ssh!" Sabo suddenly shushed him, slamming the file closed and hiding it on the bottom of the pile of papers in front of him. Before Marco could ask what was going on Ace and Luffy walked into the room just as Sabo put on a smile that looked as forced as it was.
"Sabo, we fought all these doctors up there, and all the kids are- what's wrong?" Luffy stopped in his recounting of what had happened upstairs the instant he felt Sabo's emotions. The dread, the fear, the anxiety; it was the same way he'd felt when they'd found this facility, only now it was a hundred times worse and it made Luffy step back from his brother, not liking the feelings.
Seeing Luffy move away made Sabo's smile fall a little, but he forced it back up. He wasn't oblivious to Ace watching him closely either, a look that told him he wasn't buying the smile on Sabo's face.
"Its nothing, I just... I saw something was all. Bad memories." Sabo said, as truthfully as possible so as to not tip Luffy off. This seemed to appease the youngest who looked at him in understanding, and Ace seemed to buy it too once he saw that Luffy believed him.
"Oh. I saw scary stuff too, but I'm gonna tell Whiskey about it later. You should too! Or you can tell me or Ace about it!" Luffy offered with a cheery smile as he tried comforting the blonde. Sabo's smile was a little less forced now at his brother's words and he nodded.
"I know. Anyways, did everyone get out?" He asked, trying to avoid the temptation to grab Haru's folder and read it more.
"Yeah! Ace and I punched all these doctors and then we kicked these metal doors open! And they had nicer rooms then we did too, with beds and everything." Luffy said with a pout, Ace nodding his agreement and Sabo could see in his eyes that the eldest was jealous despite his attempts to hide it. Sabo couldn't help but feel the same but forced himself to ignore that.
"Huh, wish we'd gotten beds. Hey, could you guys go tell Ruta I finished this room? I have to get the non-important papers out of here." Sabo said, patting the pile of papers. Ace and Luffy gave the pile a grimace before nodding.
"Sure. We'll help carry that stuff back to the Moby after." Ace said, noticing that every door on this floor was open with similar piles of papers on the ground in them.
"Thanks, that'll be a big help," Sabo said truthfully, glancing at Marco who had remained silent this entire time. Conversation over, Ace and Luffy left the room and Sabo let out a relieved breath, peeking back over to Marco.
"They can't know about Haru." He told him once he knew for sure Ace and Luffy were out of hearing range. Marco nodded.
"I kind of figured that, yoi. Don't you think they have a right to know though?" Marco asked, watching as Sabo pulled the file out and opened it, giving it another quick once over before placing it in a pile closer to him, covering it with a few more papers.
"Right or not, it's better they don't know for their own safety. Knowing Ace, he'd go out on a manhunt to find him and Luffy wouldn't be able to handle it. Not yet at least. We may be getting better, Whiskey's sessions have helped ensure that, but we're far from healed. If Luffy saw this, he'd take it hard. Just seeing this facility again put him in a state of shock that Ace and I had to shake him from. Knowing Haru's still around? And working in facilities no less? It would be year 6 all over again, but worse." Sabo said, eyebrows slanted with worry at the thought.
"He can't know about it. Ace either." He repeated. Marco watched him for a minute in silence before sighing and nodding.
"Alright. I think you should tell them eventually, but I agree, yoi. Now isn't the right time." Marco relented, standing with Sabo.
"Thanks, Marco."
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
"Welcome back my sons." Whitebeard greeted as the trio, along with Marco and Haruta returned, each holding their own stack of paper.
"Hey, Pops!" Luffy greeted back cheerfully. He nearly waved to the man before remembering he was holding something and stopped.
"Why don't we put these in the Library before you lose those Luffy?" Haruta asked, having noticed Luffys near catastrophe. With the wind blowing, those papers would surely have flown into the ocean had the youngest dropped them.
"Mm!" Luffy hummed in agreement, following Haruta to the Library they had on the Moby. Ace, Sabo, and Marco were about to follow as well when Whitebeard spoke up, making them pause.
"There's going to be a Commanders meeting to discuss the facility once Whiskeys done checking over the children. Sabo, you and Luffy are welcome to join seeing as this pertains to the two of you as well." Whitebeard told them.
"We'll ask Luffy if he wants to join, but knowing him he might be more inclined to bug the chefs in the kitchen," Sabo said with a small smile, Ace shaking his head beside him. Whitebeard smiled as well, laughing as he nodded.
"Yes, you're probably right. I thought I'd offer regardless." The Captain said. With that said, the three-headed to the library where Haruta was beginning to organize the stacks already there and Luffy was sitting in one of the chairs at the table, humming a made-up tune as he watched Haruta work. When they walked in his humming stopped and he beamed to them, seemingly in a cheery mood despite having been in another facility only a half-hour ago.
"Ruta, Luffy, there's gonna be a Commanders meeting about everything that happened once Whiskeys done with check-ups. Pops said you and Sabo could go to Lu." Ace told the two. Haruta looked up, acknowledging that he heard, before returning to his work. Luffy tilted his head, seeming to be deciding whether he wanted to go or not, before shrugging.
"Nah, meetings are boring," Luffy said matter-of-factly, smiling again. Ace and Sabo laughed at their brother while Marco shook his head, smiling as well as he placed his stack of papers beside where Haruta was working.
"Well, in any case, I'll be going. Just make sure you don't get into too much trouble without us." Sabo said, knowing that Luffy alone, without any commanders or he or Ace to keep an eye on him, probably meant trouble on some part of the ship. Even though there were hundreds upon hundreds of people on this ship, Luffy had a tendency to rope anyone who wasn't a Commander or his brothers into going along with his strange plans or ideas.
"Right!" Luffy agreed, still smiling, and the two older brothers didn't know if he really understood what they were asking or not.
"Anyways, what are we gonna do with all this paper?" Ace asked as he looked at the multiple stacks sitting on the table. It was a lot of information and the library on the Moby was already pretty full.
"I was thinking we could put most of them in the offices, but I wanted to put some of the more less important ones in here so I didn't take up all of the space in there," Haruta explained as he began creating more piles, one being the important office papers and the other being the not so important library papers.
Meanwhile, Luffy- who was growing bored of this conversation- decided that he wanted to go do something else instead. It was easy to slip out of the room unnoticed, he'd done it plenty of times before, so when he heard the conversation continue on as if he was still there he counted it a success. He wasn't really sneaking off, it's not like he had to stay in there, but he wasn't exactly making his departure obvious either.
Walking out onto the deck he glanced around, trying to figure out what he wanted to do. Everyone was still busy with getting ready to leave the island, Whitebeard having decided that would be best to do before any marines came by to investigate the ruins of another facility.
This reminded Luffy of what they had done though. They'd saved children- children like he had been, like Ace and Sabo- from another facility that the government was allowing to exist, was running even. Luffy didn't know much about politics or the government itself, but he knew enough to know that a place like the facility was the opposite of what the Marines prided themselves on. Fighting for Justice? For Freedom? The facility was neither of those things and yet they let those places be built, let children be taken, let doctors do horrible things to them.
Taking a deep breath Luffy focused instead on the fact that they had saved those children, helped them get the freedom the marines had taken from them.
He could still smell the underlying scent of sweat, blood and dirt coming from the infirmary where the children were at and he felt a spike in his curiosity. Even though he and Ace had been there, opening those children's doors and letting them free, he hadn't paid much attention to the state they were in. He knew it wasn't good- a lot of them had barely been able to walk into the hall on their own- and so he decided he would go and check on them.
When he, Ace and Sabo had been brought to the Moby they'd all been cautious and scared of everyone. Of course, they'd had good reason. Ace and Sabo hadn't been awake to know that the pirates had saved them, and after seven years trapped in hell, they didn't know who to trust. These children, unlike them, probably hadn't been there longer than a month. After all, life expectancy for normal children was only three weeks at the maximum.
Luffy hoped that by visiting them, he might be able to cheer them up a bit. He could relate to what they'd gone through and he could quite literally feel their pain.
Mind made up, Luffy began making his way to the infirmary. Like before, everyone was too busy getting ready to set sail to pay the youngest of the crew much mind, so Luffy made it to the room without being stopped. Now that he stood outside the door, though, he hesitated. He could feel the children's confusion, their fear, their pain, and found that maybe it would be best to leave them alone until someone better at explaining things could talk to them; like Marco or Sabo, or even Whitebeard.
No. He could do this. He just wanted to make sure they were ok, and if he didn't want to stay anymore, he could leave.
Opening the door slowly, he peeked in. Nurses were moving around the room quickly and methodically, helping each child they passed, giving them bandages or water, but never a shot. After dealing with the brothers, they knew that the children wouldn't react kindly to the needles and they most likely wouldn't even be able to safely inject them.
Luffy was quick to spot Whiskey among the many nurses, holding a clipboard in her hands and taking down notes as she walked around, probably for that meeting that Luffy wasn't going to.
Knowing better than to sneak into the infirmary without Whiskey knowing, Luffy made his way straight to her. He'd rather not get in trouble with the head nurse. As Luffy walked over to her, Whiskey looked up, putting her clipboard at her side as she moved to greet him.
"Hello, Luffy. Did you need something?" She asked him, smiling gently to him. Over the year the three brothers had become good friends with Whiskey. After all, it was bound to happen with how much of their trauma they shared with her weekly.
"No, I just..." Luffy didn't even quite know what he wanted. Now that he was here his idea to try and help the children seemed harder than he'd originally thought. Outside he'd had other emotions to muffle those inside the room, but now that he stood here among them, it was almost overwhelming. It reminded him of those days locked in a cell of his own, constantly surrounded by pain and sorrow and terror.
"Wanted to visit?" Luffy said, more of a question than a statement. He could feel Whiskey's confusion, quickly replaced with understanding and she nodded.
"Alright, but you have to stay out of the other nurses' ways, understood? All of the children here need immediate medical attention and if you get in the way of that they can- and will- kick you out." Whiskey told him in a stern voice. Luffy nodded, serious as he agreed to not cause trouble for the nurses.
"Good. I have to go to a meeting right now, but I'll be back in an hour at most. Oh, and before I forget, with how busy the infirmary is right now, I'm going to have to bump your session until the end of the week. If you need to talk sooner though, just let me know." Whiskey told him with a gentle, reassuring smile. Luffy returned the smile with one of his own and nodded, watching as the nurse left the room.
Turning to look around he took in the many children, all in beds and covered in dirt and grime that contrasted harshly against the crisp, clean, white bed sheets. Some of them looked to be in more pain than others.
Not quite sure what to do now, Luffy decided to just go sit at one of the few nurses desks in the room so he'd be out of the way. A few of the kids had given him odd looks once they realized he was there, but Luffy could feel their curiosity and ignored it. Again, sitting at the desk, Luffy didn't know what to do. He opted to watch the kids for a bit, watching the nurses give them medical treatment, but that got boring quickly and he found himself playing with the paperclips on the desk instead.
Time passed in what felt like hours but was surely only a handful of minutes when Luffy felt a sudden spike of fear nearby. He had to take some calming breaths and remind himself that it wasn't his own fear, just someone else's that was influencing him. When he was calmed down he turned to see what was happening.
Throughout his time in the infirmary there'd been spikes in emotions here and there, mostly fear whenever nurses got too close to the children, but this one had been such a strong spike that it shocked him. Looking, he found the source to be a small girl, probably around 10 years old, and a nurse, Margarite, standing by her with a worried look, needle in hand.
"I know it looks scary, but there's nothing to worry about. You need this medicine to help you get better." Margarite told the child gently, trying to calm her down. The girl was on the verge of tears as she shook her head rapidly. The two had garnered the attention of all the other children in the room, all of them looking just as scared as they looked at the needle.
"It's not going to hurt you, I promise, its only meant to help you." Margarite tried explaining again, but the girl wasn't having it. To Margarite's credit, she wasn't getting frustrated, only worried, and Luffy could tell from the nurse's emotions that this girl desperately needed the shot she was refusing.
"Hi," Luffy suddenly said, not even realizing he'd crossed the room and was beside the girl's bed now, talking to her. Margarite and the girl both looked at him in surprise, both of them not having realized either.
"H-hi..." The girl said timidly, shying away from Luffy and inadvertently closer to Margarite.
"I'm Luffy! What's your name?" Luffy asked with a bright smile. He could feel a slight irritation coming from Margarite and hoped she wouldn't kick him out just yet.
"K-Kara..." Kara replied, still extremely timid, like a rabbit that'd been seen. All eyes were still on them, even the nurses seeing as Luffy had stolen their patients' attention.
"Luffy-" The young teen immediately cut off the nurse, which earned him a glare.
"Oh, that's a nice name! Have you ever wondered what you'd name yourself if you could? I'd be something cool like... Rocky! Cause rocks are tough and stuff. Or maybe Brock, cause that's almost like rock." Luffy rambled. Gradually, as Luffy spoke, Kara looked less scared and timid of him.
"O-or Rex, like a T-Rex." Kara offered quietly. Luffy's smile widened and he nodded enthusiastically.
"Yeah! Rex! From now on, you can call me Rex, and you'll be... hm... Lion, cause you're super brave!" Luffy said after a minute of thought.
"I'm n-not brave," Kara replied, looking down at her hands.
"Sure you are, Lion! Everyone here is super duper brave, you know, cause you had to be near the mean doctors all the time." Luffy said with a grimace at the mention of the facility.
"Me and my brothers had to be near mean doctors too. For a long long time." Luffy continued, voice quiet but still holding every child's rapt attention.
"R-really?" Kara asked with wide eyes. Luffy was frowning now, but he'd started this conversation, he couldn't stop now.
"Mm. They took me and Ace and Sabo when we were little, like you, and we didn't get out for a long time." Luffy said, flipping his wrist and showing her the number tattooed there. Kara's eyes widened in shock, timidly reaching out and running her fingers over it.
"I-I got that too, I'm 29366," Kara said quietly, a swell of distraught coming from her that made Luffys frown deepen.
"No, you're Lion, not that stupid number on your wrist. I'm Rex. We don't have to worry about those mean doctors anymore because we're safe here on the Moby. These are nice nurses, they don't want to hurt us, they want to help us." Luffy said, gesturing to Margarite, and Kara immediately shied away from her, this time shuffling closer to Luffy.
"They helped me and my brothers get better after we were rescued too. We were scared of shots, actually, I still kind of am, but we need to get them to get better so we let them." Luffy explained, omitting the part where they hadn't actually gotten their first shot until months of being on the ship.
"B-but they hurt, and they're scary," Kara said in fear, eyeing the shiny needle again. Margarite had been watching the two closely this entire time, not interrupting once she realized what Luffy was doing. If anyone could relate to these children it was him and his brothers.
"Sometimes, yeah, but these are the good shots, the ones we need to get better. Hey, why don't I show you a trick?" Luffy asked, a smile on his face as he got an idea.
"A trick?" The girl asked in confusion.
"Yeah! A way to not be scared of needles anymore!" Luffy said, looking to Margarite who understood and left to get the necessary supplies.
"Are you lying?" She asked suspiciously, and Luffy looked offended at her words.
"What?! No way, Rex doesn't lie, that's not cool." Luffy said, crossing his arms and pouting as he looked away from Kara. The girl smiled a little at the antics as Margarite came back, another needle in hand and some cotton pads and a bottle of rubbing alcohol in the other, as well as a band-aid.
"Watch," Luffy told Kara, smiling to her again. The girl looked scared again, this time for Luffy as she watched him sit in a chair close-by, the nurse setting the supplies beside him. Still, every child was watching them, all in either wonder or fear.
"First, I don't look, cause the scary part was watching it happen for me," Luffy said as Margarite grabbed a cotton pad and got some rubbing alcohol on it. She rubbed it on his arm and Luffy looked away from her, towards the wall instead.
"And then I sing my favorite song so that I don't think about it." Luffy continued, still smiling widely as Margarite got the needle ready. At this point, Luffy began to sing about the islands in the North and South, all while the nurse began injecting the liquid in the needle into his arm. Before Luffy could even get to the verse about the North islands she was announcing she was done, cleaning the area again and placing a band-aid over it.
"See! Not scary or painful at all." Luffy told Kara, looking at her with a bright smile.
"Margarite's really nice. And Whiskey too, and Shirley, and Brandy, and Sherry, and-"
"I think she gets the point Luffy," Margarite said with a smile, putting the supplies away.
"So, Lion? Think you can get the good medicine?" Luffy asked Kara who hesitated. She looked between Luffy and Margarite who was still holding her needle before swallowing hard.
"Y-yeah..." She said, still obviously scared.
"I'll teach you my favorite song! That way you can sing it anytime you need to get the good shots!" Luffy told her, standing on the opposite side of the bed from where Margarite was, preparing the shot.
"Really?" Kara asked. Luffy nodded enthusiastically, still feeling the girls fear.
"Mm. First, it goes, 'The Islands in the South~ are warm~, Paina- Purupuru,'" He said, the girl smiling as she recited the words back.
"Good! And then, 'Their heads get hot~ and they're all idiots~!" Luffy continued, and once again Kara began reciting the words back.
"All done," Margarite said, once again beginning to clean up the supplies. The girl blinked in shock, turning to look at first the nurse, then her arm which had a similar band-aid to Luffy's.
"See, Lion! Not scary at all!" Luffy praised with a laugh. Kara was still looking at her arm in shock before she too slowly smiled, Luffy feeling her fear drift away. The other children all watched in amazement, the nurses smiling.
"Who else needs a good shot? I'll teach you guys the song too!" Luffy said, turning to look at the other children.
There was a hesitance, but one of the oldest looking boys in the room, maybe 12, slowly raised his hand and Luffy smiled to him before going to do the same as he'd done for Kara.
The nurses were pleased to have the help and Luffy systematically made sure that any kid who needed a shot got one without any of the fear they'd had before. When every one of the nurses were done giving medical treatments they told them they were going to send for one of the chefs to bring their food seeing as Thatch was in the meeting, and for now they could just rest. All of the children were enthralled with Luffy though and wanted to talk to him. He complied, of course, because that's why he'd come here in the first place, to cheer these kids up.
He told them stories about hunting back on his home island and all the adventures he'd had with the Whitebeards. He told them about the day he, Ace and Sabo were rescued, he told them about Makino, he told them about Fishman Island, anything he could think of.
At some point, the kids realized he had powers, namely his devil fruit abilities, and one of them suddenly spoke up. It was a girl who looked around 7 who had, for the most part, been quiet.
"Is it-... is it bad? To have powers normal people don't have?" She asked. Luffy could feel her apprehension and fear so he continued smiling to her, shaking his head.
"Nope, not at all. I've got lots of powers normal people don't have!" Luffy admitted.
"Really? Like what?" She asked in awe.
"Well I've got my gum gum powers, but I also have a really strong sense of smell! I can smell things and people from days ago. I can also feel people's emotions too and see colors around people." Luffy told her, leaving out the memory thing. It was still a sore subject for himself, even after all this time.
"Because of... the bad doctors?" She asked, timid now. Luffy frowned, because that was the truth, and the truth brought back painful memories.
"Mm. I got the bad shots that made me hurt and I got my powers because of them." Luffy affirmed, now all too hyper-aware that the smell of the infirmary was achingly similar to the facility.
"T-the... bad doctors. They gave me powers too." She finally said after a minute of silence.
"Really?" Luffy asked, now in a similar state of awe the girl had been in minutes ago.
"Mhm. They gave me the bad shots too, and then when I woke up I could... move things." She said meekly, and Luffy gave her a baffled look.
"Move things?" He asked because couldn't everyone do that? The other kids looked just as confused until suddenly a pen from a nearby desk flew right into Luffy's lap. He looked at it in confusion, wondering how that had happened until he realized and a smile bloomed on his face.
"Sugoi! That's so cool!" Luffy cried in unbridled joy. The girl shifted on the bed nervously, a smile slowly forming.
"You think so?" She asked, Luffy nodding rapidly.
"Yeah! I wish my powers were that cool!" Luffy added, imagining all the meat he could eat without even having to use his hands.
Once again, the ice was broken and the tension was gone. A new conversation erupted over Luffy and the girl, Joyce's, new powers and everyone wanted demonstrations, which Luffy was happy to give. After a bit of persuasion, Joyce agreed as well, and soon enough, they were entertaining the entire infirmary; nurses included.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
In the meeting room of the Moby, all of the Commanders, Whitebeard, Sabo, and Whiskey all sat at the large table, ready to discuss the events of the day. Whiskey had her notes with her and Sabo and Haruta had brought some of the more important files they'd found while searching the offices.
With everyone present, the meeting began.
It started with Marco, Ace, Sabo, Izo, Haruta, and Jiru all recounting their reconnaissance of the facility, describing how they were cautious and made sure they knew this place was a facility for sure before they attacked. They explained the paper Ace had read through the window, how that cemented the idea this was a facility, and how they divided up to take everyone in the facility down.
They mentioned Izo stayed on the first floor while Sabo and Haruta had the second and Ace, Luffy and Jiru went to the top, all while Marco guided everyone else to the building. Ace explained the condition of the rooms the children were locked in as well as the other rooms he and Luffy had seen in an attempt to make sure the top floor was empty. He brought up the tanks he saw, the lab, and the other various rooms filled with equipment that no doubt were used for bad intentions.
Izo mentioned that after he and the reinforcements took down everyone on the first floor they did another scan of the rooms, deciding they were most likely decoys for anyone who happened upon the facility. The 'hospital' rooms were all clean and pristine, but not a single child or doctor was in them. There was a staff room that seemed well used and another room filled with toys and books for children, but even that looked unusually clean and unused.
Marco spoke about how he did a quick scan of the first and third floor before joining up with Haruta and Sabo on the second, and that was where most of their information began.
"Sabo and I found tons of notes and files on the kids being held in the facility, and even the doctors themselves." Haruta began, pulling files out of the pile they had and opening them, placing them in the middle of the table for everyone to see.
"There are three types of files. Doctor files, test files and children files. Doctor files have pictures of the doctor themselves, as well as a number next to their picture. We're not quite sure what the number there means yet, but they all have them and they're only three digits long. A lot of them are the same, 293, but there are a few others too such as 670 or 351." Haruta continued, pulling out examples and showing everyone.
"Actually, I have a theory about that," Sabo spoke up, leaning forward.
"Whiskey, did the children happen to have similar wrist tattoos like us?" Sabo asked, showing his own number still bold on his wrist. The nurse nodded.
"Yes, I was going to mention that. They all started with 293, much like how you, Commander Ace and Luffy all start with 110." She said, glancing at her notes.
"I suspected as much. I think the numbers next to these pictures is what facility they work with. Most of them have the number 293 because that's the facility number they were assigned to. If we go with that assumption that means there are more facilities, such as 670 and 351." Sabo explained. This caused some murmurs from the group and Sabo could see that Ace was clenching his fists in his lap, which was the expected response. Sabo himself was having a hard time with the idea. He'd only gotten it after seeing that, next to Haru's picture, the number 110 was printed neatly.
"Well, that's one mystery solved, but there are still things we don't have answers to. For example, there are a lot of abbreviations on Doctor files, such as SST and FST. All of them have varying numbers next to them and there doesn't seem to be any pattern or correlation to them that I could find. Sabo?" Haruta asked, wondering if the blonde had any ideas. Sabo merely shook his head.
"I haven't made much headway with that either." He admitted, a bit frustrated that they had such valuable information in front of them but didn't know how to read it correctly.
"There are more abbreviations, more numbers, but we don't know what those mean either. Next, we've got 'Test Subject' files." Haruta said with a tone of disdain as he pulled out the children's files.
"These are a bit easier to understand then the doctors' files. Each one has a child's number. No name, no age, no weight, height, no personal information at all. Just the number they were assigned. Next, it goes into their status, alive or dead, and if the latter, the cause of their death. Each cause seems simple enough; cardiac arrest, water intoxication, suffocation, but factor in that these are children and not all of those are natural deaths by any means, it becomes not so simple. Among the deceased files, it states which test was last administered to them, and then gives a brief explanation of the test itself." Haruta said, reading one of the many children's files, frowning.
"It gives the test number, the test's goal, its objective, how many times it's succeeded, how many times it's failed, and finally, the results in both successes and failures. There's usually more failure then there is success." Haruta continued.
"On children who are still alive, it goes on to explain what tests they've been given so far, what test they're on currently, their symptoms after a day of testing, and plans for future testing." Haruta finished, sliding the child's file to the middle for them to see and pulling out another.
"Finally, they have test files. These go more in-depth on tests they were administering and tests they were finished testing. Like on the children's files, it explains the goals, objectives, the numbers of successes and failures, and a description. These ones are more detailed though and go on to explain ways they thought they could improve these tests and serums. Some of these files have stamps on them," He held up two examples, the first file having a large red stamp saying 'Failure' and the other saying 'Success'.
"And are finished getting any data. It's obvious what the stamps mean, and inside of stamped ones there's a note as to why it was deemed successful or a failure." Haruta finished, sliding the files into the middle as well.
"All of these notes and files date back to two days ago at the latest. There's nothing before that, not even a personal letter or note. Marco and I came to the conclusion that they must be systematically getting rid of their notes, or at least sending them off somewhere else. My guess would be the marines, but there's nothing we found to support that theory." Sabo said.
Finished explaining everything they found, the conversation moved on to Whiskey, everyone wanting to know how the kids were doing now that they were in the care of their resident nurses.
"Well, so far, it looks like everyone should be alright with no long-lasting issues. I don't know how long they've been there, but the worst child we had only has to recover from some malnutrition and dehydration. They all have unknown drugs in their systems, but if we can match the numbers on their wrists with the notes in those files we can know how to better treat them. Some need medicine that can only be administered through shots, but it's no surprise that they're all terrified of needles so we're having a difficult time figuring out how we're going to get them to cooperate." Whiskey said, reading over her notes carefully so she didn't miss anything.
"What happens if they don't get the shots?" Rakuyo asked, worried for the children.
"For some, not much. They might catch a disease, but there are a few who will undoubtedly grow very sick if they don't get them." Whiskey told them, making them all realize that they needed to figure out a solution to this problem sooner rather than later.
"Sabo and I could try talking to them." Ace suggested. He'd stewed in his anger when Haruta and Sabo were going over the files, and now that he'd calmed down he wanted to help the children as much as he could.
"That could possibly work. After all, you two, as well as Luffy, can relate to them in ways no one else can. After the meeting, we could go to the infirmary and figure something out." Whiskey said, Ace and Sabo agreeing. The meeting began to finish up after that, Whiskey saying a few final things and others asking some questions they had, and once it was finished, they dispersed, Ace and Sabo going with Whiskey while the others went to make sure they were on track to another island.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Back with Luffy and the kids in the infirmary, the food had arrived. The nurses were handing out bowls of soup to the children while Luffy twisted into a pretzel and pens spun in circles around him, kids laughing as they watched. This was how Ace, Sabo, and Whiskey found them.
"Uh, what's going on in here Luffy? And... are those pens floating?" Ace asked, eyeing the objects in disbelief.
"Ace, Sabo, Whiskey! Isn't it cool? Joyce has powers too! She can make things move- with her mind!" Luffy said, returning his body to its normal sitting position with wide eyes and a bright smile.
"That's... surprising," Sabo said, blinking slowly as he tried getting over his shock. After all, he, Ace and Luffy had powers of their own, arguably weirder then moving things with their mind, so it really shouldn't be all that surprising that another child from a facility had something as well. The pens all stopped spinning at once, drifting back over to the desks they belonged to and settling there, unmoving, while a little girl- presumably Joyce- looked over to them shyly.
"But cool right?! Joyce, these are my older brothers Ace and Sabo, they've got powers too. Oh, and this is nurse Whiskey, she's really nice." Luffy told the girl as he bounced over to her bedside.
"H-hi," She greeted shyly, waving a bit. The three returned the smile, all waving back.
"Nurse Whiskey, here are the updated records!" Shirley said as she rushed over to the head nurse, handing her some files.
"Wait, but these are the ones who needed injections." Whiskey said in confusion, flipping through the files and seeing that it clearly stated the children had been given their shots.
"That's right, Luffy here was a really big help. He helped the children get their shots and even got one himself." Shirley said proudly, smiling to Luffy and patting him on the back.
"You did?" Ace and Sabo asked Luffy in unison, noticing the band-aid on their brother's arm. Normally, whenever they had to get shots, they went as a group. It was the only way they'd been able to cope with it, the three of them distracting the one getting the shot.
"Yup! I taught them my song about the islands and showed them how I sing it without looking, so it's not scary. I taught Lion how to do it first, cause she was really scared about it." Luffy explained. Luffy did have a habit of singing the ear-splitting song whenever they had to get shots, but it surprised them he'd willingly done it here by himself.
"Lion?" Sabo asked, wondering if that was one of the children's name. It was a strange name, but there was always a possibility Luffy was pronouncing it wrong or he'd come up with a nickname instead.
"Mm. Kara. She's brave, like a Lion, so her new name is Lion. I'm Rex, like a T-Rex, cause they're cool! Right Lion?" Luffy called, turning towards another bed where a girl looked up from her soup to Luffy.
"Right Rex!" She called back with a bright smile. Luffy turned back to look at them, still beaming.
"A lot of the bad feelings are gone now too." He added, clearly pleased with himself, and he had every right to be.
"Good job Lu." Ace praised with a smile of his own.
"Thank you, Luffy, for helping the children. Now we don't have to worry about anyone getting sick on our watch." Whiskey said gratefully as she closed the files in her hands, smiling to the youngest.
"You're welcome! Hey, Ace, Sabo, come on, you've gotta meet George! And Kianna! And Trevor! Oh, and there's also Yuki and Lyle, their siblings too." With all the ease of a baby giraffe, Luffy dragged the brothers off to meet child after child, all of them happy, if not a bit shy, to meet the two eldest brothers. It was obvious Luffy had said a lot about them because they were quizzed on their abilities and whether the nurses here really were nice, to which they assured they were.
Leave it to Luffy to bring smiles to children only hours after being released from hell.
Another long chapter for you guys! This one had a lot of information about facilities which is something we weren't able to get from the brothers' facility. A lot of it still doesn't make a lot of sense, but they know more than they did before.
Also, seeing as both in this story and in the anime Luffy is child like, I feel like he would be good with children. At the same time though, he's also extremely blunt and stubborn which wouldn't always mix well with kids. Either way, in this story, he's able to relate with these kids because of their shared experiences in facilities which is why they gravitated to him.
I don't have a lot more to say about this chapter, even though it was so long and had a lot to it. Thank you all as always, and I'll see you again on Monday with the next chapter!